Evening star., 1937-10-22
WARRANT CHARGES
MARINE, IS, WITH
DAVIDSON MURDER
Military Records and Wit
nesses Back Reported
Confession to Police.
QUANTICO AUTHORITIES
HOLDING WALTER L. ROSS
"Self- Defense" Is Said to Be
Claim-Traced Through Penn
sylvania Motorist.

Military reCOrdS ana q humber VI
witnesses were said today to cor
roborate the reported confession Of
an 18-year-old Marine that he killed
Elmer J. Davidson, 50, well-to-do
Washington attorney, on lonely road
near Ouantico, Va, on the night Of
October 3.
Sergt. E. ]. McDermott of the Vir-
ginia State police said today he could
produce witnesses and records to SUBJ
stantiate the story of Walter L. Ross
that he shot the Washington attorney
and then fed in his automobile.
The officer said Ross, after making
a complete" confession to him, re-
peated the story to military author
tiles. Records at the post, McDermott
said, bear out the young Marines
story of at least two meetings with
Davidson and his account of his move
ments before and after the murder.
Murder Warrant Sworn Out
McDermott today was gathering up
the loose ends of the case with view
to presenting it to Stafford County
grand jury. Yesterday he swore out
murder warrant for Ross before Justice
of the Peace F. Fisher at Falmouth,
Va, but has not yet served it on mill
tary authorities.
The officer is holding the warrant
for service in case the military au-
thorities convene court and
give Ross a dishonorable discharge
from the Marine Corps. Meanwhile.
McDermott believed his case against
Ross was all but complete.
Sergt. McDermott, rated as traffic
officer, with little police experience in
other lines, played lone hand almost
from the start in his investigation.
For two weeks he collected informa-
ton which was to prove useful when
he got his first real break" several
days ago.
Key Lay in Pennsylvania.
From the start. according to McDer-
mott, he had known that the key to
the mystery lay, in all probability. in
the hands of a Pennsylvania motorist
who gave the murder suspect g lift
after the latter crashed Davidson's
roadster on the Richmond highway
near Triangle while fleeing the scene
of the killing.
Three Triangle youths had seen and
talked briefly to the suspect before he
abandoned Davidson's ditched ma
chine and tagged down north-bound
car, but they could not describe him.
1t was dark and raining at the time.
and the man had swung a fashlight
In their faces.
The suspect declined the aid offered
him by the youths and used his fash
light to halt passing automobile. AS
he climbed in, he called that he would
send back from Washington for the
partially wrecked car. The youths
did not take the license number Of
the automobile. One OF them was
fairly certain, however, that the car
pOIc Z Clllloy Afulld edSS.
Several days ago the motorist, whose
name is being withheld, had occasion
to travel back over the same road
A resident of Harrisburg, he had been
visiting a young woman college resi-
dent at Fredericksburg, Va. An at
tendant at a filling station near Tri-
angle recognized him as a Pennsyl-
vania motorist who had stopped there
on the night OF the murder. He COM
this information to De-
Dermott.
MotOriSt Is Interviewed.
The officer located the motorist
through Pennsylvania vehicle records
and went to his home to interview
him. The man furnished a good
description of the suspect, whom he
had taken to Frederick, Md. Nc
Dermott learned that the fugitive had
gone to bus terminal to inquire about
connections to Baltimore, and then
"bummed" q ride in q passing car
going in that direction.
Meanwhile, Washington detectives
had Transcribed Davidson's shorthand
notes and learned the attorney had
jotted down the names of service men
stationed at Quantico and Fort Belvoir,
in the general vicinity of the murder
(See DAVIDSON, Page A-5.)