Evening star., 1941-09-02
Catoe Ordered
Held for Action
Of Grand Jury
Case to Be Presented
Tomorrow in Death
Of Betty Strieff

Pictures on Pages X-2 ana BIZ
A coroner's jury, after nearing evi-
dence gathered by police in the
death of Jessie Elizabeth Betty
Strieff, this afternoon ordered Jarvis
r. Catoe held for action of the grand
jury-the first step in the legal
process which will put the accused
on trial for his life.
The jury, which had been sworn
in more than three months ago over
Miss Strieff's body in anticipation of
the eventual arrest of her murderer,
decided after celebrating for 25
minutes that the evidence against
Catoe was strong enough to warrant
grand jury attention.
After the jury reported, District
Attorney Edward M. Curran said
the case will be presented to the
District grand jury tomorrow morn
ing. If an indictment is voted, Mr..
Curran added, a special return of the
grand jury will be requested, and
Catoe will be arraigned Immediately,
with prospects of an early trial.
Testimony Is Presented.
Testimony from police who found
the body on June Is in a garage
behind TIT @ street NV, from
those who saw the War Department
worker last and from the detectives
who obtained Catoe's alleged con-
fession we're presented to the jury
Catoe, himself, who sat imperturb-
able, twiddling his thumbs, through
out the whole proceeding, declined to
take the witness stand.
The opening of the hearing was
delayed for an hour and a half,
awaiting the arrival of Mr. Curran.
who returned from a vacation in
Maine to take personal charge of
the case At the time the hearing
opened a large crowd had gathered
outside of the Morgue, but only
100 were admitted to the hearing
room. A special detail of police was
on duty at the Morgue
Detective Sergt Aubrey Tolson
was among the first witnesses
called. To the jury he related the
now familiar details of the state
ment Catoe made to police follow
ing his arrest last week. Quoting
Catoe, Sergt. Tolson told the jury
how Miss Strieff had hailed the car
driven by the colored man, mistak-
ing it for a taxi
Fiance Appears Nervous.
He quoted Catoe as saying that he
had offered to drive Miss Strieff to
a delicatessen, but, instead, had
taken her to an alley in the rear
of the 1900 block of S street NV.
and criminally attacked her. Then,
Sergt. Tolson testified, Catoe admit
ted driving the body to the garage
behind the @ street address, where
he hid it.
Stanley LIE Blanc, Farm Credit
Administration clerk, was called as
a witness to tell the details of the
futile search he made on the after
noon Of June Is for Miss Strieff, to
whom he was engaged. At first, his
answers were slow in coming and
he was obviously nervous.
I'm sorry, I guess I can't think
very WELL" he told the jury. AS
Coroner A. Magruder Macdonald
sought to bring out details of the
events leading up to Mr.. La Blanc's
Identification of the girls body, the
witness memory again failed. Wet
ting his lips, he said:
I'm afraid I was in too much of
/ a daZe to know"
| He was crosS-examined closely by
j. Robert ESher, one of the three
lawyers who were engaged by
Catoe's family to represent him.
Didn't Like Janitor's Looks.
Under questioning, Mr.. LIE Blanc
told how he had come to his f1ancee S
apartment at 2110 Nineteenth street
NV. after she had failed to feturn
from an errand.
Il looked first in all the apart
ments on the second f1ooor and then
went next door," he said. Then I
went to delicateSsen on Florida
avenue near Connecticut"
1t was toward this same deli
catessen that Catoe had driven Miss
Strieff, according to his purported
confession, but had changed his
mind before reaching it.
Mr.. LIE Blanc told about his ef-
forts to search the basement of Miss
Strieff's apartment and said that
the janitor, whom he described as
"a very peculiar person." had re-
fused him admission.
Did Miss Strieff ever tell you
she didn't like the janitor's looks?'
Mr. Esher asked. "She wasn't afraid
of him." replied Mr.. LIE Blanc. "She