Evening star., 1952-01-21

give me any information if he had
it. He was interested in compen-
sation for his injuries.
AS I was leaving I told Nelson
that if he remembered anything,
or that if he wanted to talk to me
later, to call me and would come
out to see him. I never heard
from Nelson again. We went up
on r street where we talked to
Henry Leake, known as Piggy
Leake. the first and only time I
ever talked to him.
We asked him if Nelson had
tried to get any money out of him.
He denied that he ever had. We
also asked him if he had any in
formation concerning any men,
ber of the police department. and
he said he did not have any such
information.
/ went over to the district at
torney's Office and talked to Mr..
Fay George Morris Fay, former
district attorney and his princi-
pal assistants, Mr.. Fihelly and Mr..
&c. E. Murray. I told him of the
conversation and the accusations.
Later I went before the grand
jury and reported what I have
said here today. They had quite
"a lengthy meeting. The officers
went to court 26 times in that
case. I would also like to bring
out here that it was not the Po-
lice Departments idea to charge
Nelson. We thought he did a
good job in returning the fire and
in being able to identify Leake.
Otherwise, we would not have
known who he was. He was not
charged at that time. 1t was
some months later.
Unprovoked Assault.
@. Major, did any one on the
police force ascertain that Nelson
had been in any way to blame fog
this shooting affray? --...
A. No sir, it looked like an un-
provoked assault.
@. asked you, did. I not,
whether Maj. Barrett said he
would give Nicholas Is minutes
to resign. Do you recollect?
A. No, I do not. I don't remem-
ber whether that was said or not.
But that is not the usual policy.
A man is usually given 80 days
notice. He did say that he in
tended to bring the matter before
the grand jury.
cat this point, Committee
Counsel Arnold Bauman COM
mended Maj. Murray for his
cooperation with the commit
tee and pointed out that he did
not believe that any testimony
given thus far had cast any
adverse reflection on Maj. Mur-
ray0
Welker Begins Questions.
Senator Welker-Maj. Murray,
did I understand your testimony
to be that Sergt. Nichols at one
time was alleged to have attended
"a prize fight in Cleveland with
SimkinS?
A. That was one of the accusa-
tions that Maj. Barrett made. I
did learn later that SimkinS did
attend a prize fight in Cleveland.
@. Was there a denial from
Sergt. Nichols?
A. Yes, sir, he said he had gone
with CMaj. Murray did not COM
plete this SENTENCED. Later he
showed me a letter that had been
sent to him prior to the visit in
which one of the contestants had
sent him a couple of tickets. Who
he went with and who he came
back with / don't know.
Senator Welker-Did you ascer-
tain that Sergt. Nichols had in
fact been to Simkins' home to
watch a prize fight?
A. Yes, sir, Sergt. Nichols in a
statement said he did go there.
Senator Welker-From my own
independent investigation we have
been informed that Sergt. Nichols
has done great service and over
a period of years been an out
standing officer.
| A. When headed the robbery
squad Nichols did do some very
good work.. He has many COM
mendations in his file.
| Senator Welker-we are some
what concerned about the testi-
mony in this compounding of
Piggy Leake and Nelson. Here
! we have a man that you have