The Washington times., 1938-03-01
Missing Witness
In Blau Staying
Trial Arrested
Cab DriUer Faces
Quizzing Before
Grand Jury
By CARROLL PEEKE

waiting for a fare last night, just
at the close of the grand jury
session which has begun the de
liberation of the charge against
the now withering nobleman.
HELD FOR QUESTIONING
He has been taken in custody
and is being held as a material
witness for questioning by Special
Prosecutor Raymond Neudecker
probably when the sessions are
resumed tonight, at 9:15 over
VOL.
His arrest caused considerable
excitement, as it is believed he
knows a great deal more that
will link the Baron to the fic-
tional murder itself than he told
the police when he turned in the
weapon now known to have been
the murder gun. You will re-
member this gun was found by
him in his cab the morning after
Brooks was shot to death. He will
prove a most valuable witness.
With that blast of excitement,
the case of the Baron was before
the Grand Jury last night.
WALSH GIVES CHARGE
United States Senator David /.
Walsh, sitting as the Chief JUS
tice, delivered charge to the %
men and women of Washington
and vicinity who are now sitting
in judgment on the man accused
of killing the Chevy Chase archi-
tect. He told the listening jury
of the air:
I'm all your deliberations,
and in your findings, it would
more perfectly serve the ends
for which this jury was estab-
liShed if you were mOmentarily,
in your minds, to be in the posi-
tiOn of the defendant, as well as
the prOSecutOr-and to weigh
well that fairness which you
yourselves would desire were
you so accused"
CITIZENSHIP LESSON
You could have heard a pin
drop as the distinguished jurist,
and United States Senator urged
the duty of good citizenship upon
every listening juror
Then the fireworks began.
Special Prosecutor Neudecker
lost no time in establishing in the
minds of the jury the fact that
Friedrich Wilhelm Wolfgang
Hohenloff, the Baron Won Blau,
has for years made use of his
personal charm to lure persons
high in Washington society into
the net of his spying machina-
tions. He has done this, it is
evident, in the hope that if
caught the matter would, because
of them, be hushed up. However,
he did not dream that he would
find himself confronted with the
need for committing a premedi-
tated murder. When he did, his
reliance on them faded. Now he
is practically deserted by those
whose homes he used as a shield
to hide his infamy.
hEFOh1EK A WITNESS
I was a witness before that
Grand Jury. I cannot tell you
what I said. But if the Baron
Won Blau is indicted-as there
seems to be a prevailing feeling
that he will be-then all to which
! have testified will come out.
Seen in the corridor of the
studios of VOL we're such leading
social figures as Mrs. j. Haden,
who, it is understood, will appear
as a witness. Mrs. Haden was in
earnest conversation with E. Bur.
ton Corning, prominent Washing
ton architect, who was a close
business associate of the late Ron
aid Brooks.
Corning, because of his connec-
tionS, especially with Brooks, was
excused from jury duty last night
and his place on the panel filled
by Aaron TuShin, 4943 Massachu-
sets Ave. N. w. It is well known
aside from the testimony before
the grand jury, which I am, of
course, not permitted to use, that
Mrs. Haden's club activities, like
those of Mrs. Louis G. Caldwell,
who also gave evidence last night,
were in some way connected with
certain plans of the Baron Won
Blau against the peace and Sc
curity of the United States.
TRIAL HAS LAUGHS
Mrs. Mehitable Larkin, neigh
Dor to the late Ronald Brooks.
was made the victim of a practi-
cal Joke by some corridor by
.st.anders. She had come into the
building, with the tall feather on
her elaborate hat bobbing at every
step, and when the foreman,
United States Representative
Francis Case called for the jurors
to assemble, one of them told her
to go fright on in and sit down" "
She was promptly elected, to the
merriment of the rest Ct the cor
ridor watchers.
DR.. Harry Douglas of the Calver-
ton apartments on Columbia Road
who made the official report Of the
finding of Brooks body the morn
ing after he was killed, was seen
going in to the Grand Jury room,
and it was assumed that his teSti-
mony related to the professional
report of the homicide.
Everything did not go smoothly,
Il may be reported, for the voice
&IaA cotJlI ha haorJ