Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-03-01
The Parking Lot Murder
Police Boffed in Their Search for Clues and Motive;
You May Hold the Answer to Some of Their Questions

called again. This time, Mrs.
Walden answered the phone.
She, too, called downstairs and
Mr.. Griffith volunteered that
Mr.. Hoyle had not been home
all night. Mr.. Griffith and the
dairy official talked. They
agreed it was unlike the pune
tual. industrious Mr.. Hoyle not
to show up for work.
Mr.. Hoyle's household spent
the day calling friends here and
out-of-town. Mr.. Griffith called
the hospitals and asked police
If there were unidentified men
in hospitals or the morgue. The
next morning, Monday, Mrs.
Walden officially reported her
brother missing.
Worked for Dairy Long Time.
Sergt. Furr asked about Mr..
Hoyle's background. He found
Mr.. Hoyle had been working for
the dairy nearly 10 years, that
beginning in 1948 he and Mr..
Griffith had rented a series of
rooming houses which they let
out to roomers at little profit.
He found Mr.. Hoyle was the
father of a 28-year-old son liv-
ing in Lakeland, Fla, that MIR.
Hoyle and his wife had been sep
arated some % years ago and the
divorced wife was now living in
Arizona.
Mr.. Hoyle, he found, was a
homebody who might go out for
a few beers occasionally and
then stay home nights for two
weeks at a time. He found a
man who was unusually open
handed, inclined to buy a beer
for a stranger and tip lavishly.
Mr.. Hoyle, he learned, never car
ried more than $40 with him
when he went out for the eve
ming. He earned about 500 a
week, dressed modestly and
made a hobby of raising para
keets.
Sergt. Fur found that the
first rooming house operated by
Mr.. Hoyle was across the street
from the murder scene at 1347
Euclid street.
AS the first night of investi-
cation wore on, reports filtered
in from the apartment canvass.
A woman was located who had
parked her car in the space
beside the death car a few hours
before the body was discovered.
She noticed the dark stains on
the paving, thought they were
oil leaks and stepped over them
to leave the lot. She did not
look in the next car.
A resident on the first floor
front at 1348 Euclid heard what
she thought was a shot at II
pm, but she placed it on Sunday
night. A man living on the
second floor reported hearing a
shot on Saturday or Sunday
night but decided when detec-
tive came back to interview him
further that it was a backf1re
he had heard.
Two Women Heard Shot.
Two women on the parking
lot side of 1868 Euclid agreed
they had heard a shot on the
parking lot Saturday night but
they were sure the time was
8 pm.
A woman at 1923 Fourteenth
street, the back of which bor-
ders on the lot, heard a man
calling for help about midnight
Saturday but she was sure the
call was from Fourteenth street.
not from the lot, A man ia the
same building heard a call for
help about 1915 pm. Saturday
but he. too, placed the call on
Fourteenth street.
A resident whose first floor
apartment overlooks the lot at
the point where Mr.. Hoyle was
parked told police he saw the
car on the lot at $3.50 am. Sun
day but from his point above
the car he couldn't see any one
in it.
A woman whose apartment is
at the back of the lot recalled
that on Sunday morning her
little girl, taking a short cut to
church through the lot. noticed
a man slumped in car. The
child told her mother, who went
out to take a look. She decided
he was "just a drunk" and went
away
The canvass of residents then
and later failed to produce a
single person who had parked
on the lot from IL pm. Saturday
to 2 am. Sunday, considered
by police the vital period. No one
was found who could recall for
sure whether the chain was
stretched across the lot during
that period or was down.
Check Taverns, Restaurants.
Police began spot checking
restaurants and taverns that
night in search of someone who
might have seen Mr.. Hoyle alone
or IN company.
At 4 am. Tuesday, after talk
ing to some 200 people, the de-
tectives called it a night. Al