Evening star., 1946-03-03


entered the apartment o1
Mrs. Virginia Mcpherson shortly after
noon on September IA, 1929, and gazeC
upon the gruesome scene within, he
unwittingly was projecting himself into
the middle of what old timers on the
police force-and many other Wash
ngtonians-regard as the National
Capitals most sensational death mystery
Other celebrated local cases. such as
the murders of Mary Baker and Beulah
Limerick, have had their sensational
angles, of course, but as far as Kelly
himself and his detective colleague
the late Inspector William S. Shelby,
were concerned-and they worked on
the Baker and Limerick cases, too-the
death by strangling of attractive Mrs.
Mcpherson topped everything in their
book. This was not only because Kelly
and Shelby were to find their regulations
and their very futures at stake before
the records were closed on the McPher-
son case, but because the ramifications
OF the investigation were to become SO
involved, so widespread and at times so
improbable as to set the case apart in
District police annals.
Inspector Shelby reiterated this view
to the writer during a chat few DAYS
before the recent deaths, within a few
hours of each other, of both Shelby
and Col. Kelly. This colorful pair often
reminisced about their tribulations and
he he
cially about their condemnation by one
grand jury in the Mcpherson case and
their eventual eXoneration by second
grand jury and by a special trial board.
Investigation Led to Chain of
Extraordinary Developments
The chain of extraordinary develop
ments which was to mark the Nc
Pherson mystery really began when
young Robert A Mcpherson returned to
his wife'S apartment in the Park Lane
after an arrangement of several days
duration. A few minutes later-it was
about noon-he hurried to the lobby of
the apartment house and notified the
desk clerk and the manager that his
wife was dead on the floor of her bed
room-With the cord of her pa jamas tied
tightly about her throat. The manager
later testified to his impression" that
the husband had said he had covered
the partly -unclothed body of his wife,
indicating that the husband had gone
in the room.
With this impression fresh in his
mind, therefore, the manager went to
the apartment with the husband and
he told police, he was surprised to find
that the body lay close to the door. so
that he had to push with both hands
to open the door and enter the bed
room. The body lay on the floor near
the bed, with the feet stretching close
to the door. 1t was partly covered
Around the girls neck the manager
could see firmly knotted pajama cord
There was no doubt that the girl was
dead.
The manager and the husband quick
ly left the apartment after this inSpec-
ton, locked the door and the manager
telephoned the facts as he knew them
to desk sergeant at the Third Precinct,
short distance away. 1t sounded like
murder to the Third Precinct man, so
he Immediately called the Detective
Bureau at Police Headquarters and
within few minutes the then Lieut..
Ed Kelly arrived at the Park Lane and
began his celebrated investigation
Kelly noted the position of the BODY.
studied the cord and its knots, observ-
ed the somewhat disarrayed condition
Of the bedroom and examined the re-
mainder of the small apartment. He
saw that closed window in the second
floor bedroom overlooked the fiat roof
of an extension of the building. He
studied particularly small pool of
dried blood on the tiled floor of the
adjoining bathroom