Evening star., 1946-02-10
Frameup Story
Expected 10 Be
1oIdbyConnors
Murder Defendant
Claims He Heard
Report in D. G. Jail

SFSse tbi ~ 49, SdhA
Raymond Connors, former Yon-
kers IN. " automobile salesman
charged with the Barker -Casbarian
murders of last February, will con-
tinue in District Court tomorrow
the story he hopes will save him
from the electric chair. He began
his testimony Friday.
The trial will have entered its
sixth week, one of the longest mur-
der trials in this jurisdiction.
Connors is expected to tell the
Jury Of the whispered reports that
he was being framed, which he
says he heard in the District Jail
after his arrest. He was brought
here and charged with the crime
six months after Edward Barker,
use-car dealer, and Pany Casbarian,
rooming house keeper, were found
bound hand and foot and shot
through the head in an automobile
trailer used as an Office by Mr..
Barker on his uSed-car lot at Four
teenth and N streets NV.
The defendant had arrived in his
testimony at his arrest August l in
his home in YonkerS, when court
adjourned Friday.
Repeated Talk Previously.
The side -the-mouth talk Con-
flors said he heard in the Jail was
repeated by him earlier in the trial
but in the absence of the jury Con-
nors was then testifying in support
of motion to keep his alleged &C
complice, Joseph Vinci, alias Little
Joe, from testifying.
ConnorS story on the stand con-
tradicted. with few exceptions, the
testimony given by the criminals
used as prosecution witnesses,
Thomas J. McEneaney and Vinci
McEneaney testified he helped Con-
nors steal an automobile sold to Mr.
Barker on March "a, 1914, II months
before the murders. Vinci testified
that he bound the two men up in
the trailer on the night of February
%, 1945 before Connors shot them.
One of the exceptions which
Charles B. Murray, assistant United
States attorney, will inquire into in
cross examination, is Connors' de-
NAL that he made the Robert
Cooper" signatures on the papers
transferring the stolen automobile
to Mr.. Barker in March, 1914.
Charges Stolen Car Sold.
The Governments case is that
Connors, representing himself as
Robert Cooper, Binghamton IN.
" contractor, sold the stolen car
to Mr.. Barker, noticed the dealer
carried large sums of money in his
pocket and returned almost a year
later with the double motive of rob-
berry and of eliminating a witness
in the stolen car incident which
was then under FBI investigation.
Connors testified that he was le-
ultimately in the used-car business
and at one time had four locations
in Yonkers, plus leadership for
new car. He said he was not aware
the car in question was stolen. He
said he believed the New York reg
istration card certifying the car was
owned by Robert Cooper of 9
Highland avenue, Binghamton. was
genuine. Connors said that after he
discovered the car was stolen he
made restitution, paying Mr.. Bar
ker $3.50 on February 16 or II in
the trailer. Vinci was present, Con-
nors said, when Mr.. Barker added
that sum to large roll of bills in
his pocket.
The registration card, he said,
was all that was necessary to trans
fer the car. The purchaser, hessaid,
merely had to sign the other side.
Connors knew nothing, he said, of
the District application for title
and other papers regarding the
sale, all signed Robert Cooper.
Lost $4,000 at Races.
John Barnes, Mr.. Barker's partner,
testified that the defendant arrived
in March, 1914, at the used car lot
and said he was a Binghamton con-
tractor who had lost $4,000 at the
races at the Hialeah track in Florida
and wanted to sell the car before
returning home. Harry w. Ruth, a
notary in Mr. Barker's Office, testi-
fed that Mr.. Barker typed out the
application for title, that the de-
fendant signed it and that he (Mr.
Ruth witnessed the signature. He
identified the Robert Cooper sig
nature as the one he notarized.
He further testified that Mr..
Barker and the defendant departed
for the District building and return
ed over an hour later with a title for
the car in the name of Robert
Cooper Two handwriting experts,
DR.. Wilmer j. Souder of the Nation
al Bureau of Standards, and Ira
Gulickson of the Metropolitan Police
department. have testified that the
known griting of the defendant and
the signature Robert Cooper were
made by the same man. j. Newton
Baker, handwriting expert called by