The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1942-10-29
VINCENT CHRISTY

the bullets taken from the bodies
of the victims were fired from
Christy's guns, would be suffi-
cient.
On his return here from Jack
sonville Christy made a confess
sion of the quadruple killings,
saying he killed Leopold for re-
venge and that the deaths of the
other three were incidental. Of
ficials for time were inclined to
believe this story, but they dis
carded it, and now stand ready
to prove it in court. They say
they can prove that Christy is a
thief and bandit, and that he
walked into the home where Leo
pold, 81, his wife, 80, were play
ing checkers, while the child
played on the floor, for the sole
purpose of committing holdup.
A fellow prisoner, who was re-
Gently released from Dade county
Jail after being confined in the
same cell with the man, told a re-
porter that Christy had but slight
hope of beating the murder cases
in court, but hoped to make a
break for freedom either from
the Dade jail, on his way to Raj
ford, or from the state prison
after he gets there.
The felloW-prisoner described
Christy as a man without nerves,
and said he eats well and sleeps
like a child in spite of the knowl-
edge that he has a very poor
chance to escape the electric chair.
From what they learned from
Christy, physical evidence and
from the hundreds of witnesses
they have questioned in the case,
Investigators reconstructed the
events of the evening of July II as
follows: Christy entered the Leo
pold apartment shortly before
dusk with his guns in his hands.
Leopold, a powerful man, Crap
pied with the killer
The killers guns were dis
charged a number of times with
out effect during the struggle,
but then the death bullets were
fired into the body of the man.
Sometime during the period in
which the two grappled for the
guns, one of them killed the six
year-old child. During these fate
full seconds Mrs. Leopold went
outside and begged some of the
people who gathered in the street
below to come up and help. Not a
soul moved to her assistance, and
a few seconds later the killer was
seen to reach out through the
doorway, grip the screaming wo-
man and drag her back into the
apartment. More shots were
heard, and when police arrived,
the man and child lay dead, while
the woman was still breathing
slightly.
How Killer Escaped
The killer had escaped by
climbing out a rear kitchen win
dow to the roof of the market.
Seeing the crowd gathered below,
he ran to the rear and dropped
some % feet to the ground. When
he dashed across open lots wit
nesses noticed blood running
down from wound in his tenn
pie. and Investigators believe the
wound was received either in his
struggle with Leopold or in the
drop to the ground from the rear
of the building.
Running a few hundred yards,
the man Communicated the car of
Ralph J. NORM, Jr., and witnesses
said they saw the car speed off.
Young MORN put up fight when
the killer tried to force him from
the car at Vista court just east of
Bayshore drive, and the youths
body was found a hundred yards
from the road the following morn
ing.
The killer wrecked his stolen
car and abandoned it on S. w. 18th
street, near the Florida East Coast
railway tracks. He later walked
to his apartment, in which, oddly
enough, also lived some of the
states star witnesses in the case.
First. however, he stood around
on Flagler street, block from
police headquarters, and waited
for the papers to come out with a
report of his murders. He re-
manned here for some weeks be-
fore taking a bus to Jackson
vile.
Had the suspect thrown his
guns away, he would have had
little to fear from authorities, but
De Kept them, because guns are
hard to get now" and got arrested
in Jacksonville after a somewhat
Similar type of crime, entering the
home of victim in broad day
light to commit a holdup. ]
If Christy had received less
than a death sentence authorities
say they would have been disap-