Evening star., 1953-07-15
By Miriom Ottenbero

f1OCel IOr women ana returned
to her second-floor room. Even
with her dark hair twisted in
pin curls and a net over it, she
looked acknowledgement than
her As years.
At the door of her bedroom,
she stopped.
why don't we both leave our
doors open?" she called to the
girl directly across the hall.
THAT way, we'll get cross-ven-
tilation."
That, police believe, was the
suggestion that led directly to
the murder of Alyce o. Taggart.
the woman who came to work
in postwar Washington and met
death in a narrow bedroom of
a women's hotel.
The open door
It was closed, locked, at 9:45
m. on Monday, July 6, when
a hotel maid, Maude Thomas,
.colored, so, came to do up the
room.
What she saw brought the
highest officials of the Police
Department in a hurry.
Tenant Dead.
They found Miss Taggart
sprawled on the floor. She had
been brutally beaten. Her night
gown, lace trimmed but no lon
ger white, was doubled up over
her chest. A stocking was looped
but not tied around her neck.
Near her on the floor lay a
duckpin with a green ribbon
tied around it. Streaks on the
duckpin indicated this was the
murder weapon-one pound,
1912 ounces of wood swung with
lethal force.
Also on the floor was a bloody
towel and the second stocking.
Clothes spilled out of the bot
tom drawer of the bureau.
Purses in the bureau had been
ransacked. A purse lay on top
of the bureau-obviously the
one she had used that day be-
cause it had her door key in
it. Beside the purse lay a wallet
with 20 pennies and dime in
the change purse. No bills were
left in the wallet.
A top sheet lay crumpled at
the bottom of the bed. The wall
beside the bed was spotted with
red. Those spots gave police a
fact: She was attacked as she
lay in bed.
Snapshot Collection.
The room, simple though it
was. told police something about
the victim. Tucked in every
crevice of the bureau mirror
were snapshots. Most of them,
it developed later, were pictures
of her sister, her niece and
nephew. One of them showed a
small girl in ballet costume with
arms arching above her head.
Looped from the side of the
bureau was a colerful paper lei.
Miss Taggart played golf. A
well-worn bag of clubs behind
the easy chair testified to that.
She was a bowler. Investiga-
ton developed that the duckpin
used to murder her was her own
= a trophy awarded by men,
bers of her intra office bowling
league because, as captain Of
her team. "Taggart's Laggarts, "
she had attended the largest
consecutive number of league
games.
She was a reader. A gooseneck
lamp on the shelf behind her
bed was twisted downward to
make it comfortable to read in
bed. On the shelf were half a
dozen books-among them, "The
Unfair Sex" a collection of Adlai
Stevenson's speeches and Paul
Wellman's "The Iron Mistress. I"
She was churchgoer. A re-
ligious calendar hung on the wall
above the shelf. Police learned
that she had attended services
regularly at the Luther Place
Memorial Church. Her church
habits later became a point of
investigation.
Devoted to Sister.
She was devoted to her sister,
her only living relative. Police
found many letters from Mrs.
A. H. Huth in Lafayette. Ind.
indicating a frequent corre-
spondence.
Other papers in the room be-
came a matter of immediate con-
cern to police-a note for $500
with a promise to pay May rs,
1858; an uncashed check for $500
bearing that date, a typewriter
transfer of title to car as Sc
curity on the note and letter
written by Miss Taggart which,
it developed, was copy OF one
she had mailed to a man who
owed her this money.
In the letter dated Tuesday
evening" but mailed in mid
June, she had written to John"
that she had tried repeatedly to
get in touch with him and had
left messages but he had not re-
turned her calls.
"You see, John," she wrote, sit
is just as simple as this: I loaned
you the money in good faith and
/ expected to hear from you. AS
you know, / have been out of
work for five weeks, plus have a
hospital bill of $500 and I am in
desperate need of the money I
loaned you and which I was to
be repaid on the 25th of May.
"Of course, you realize I have
so-called title to the car, Lees
check for 5000 and the note for
5000. John, I would regret
and hesitate to take further steps
to receive the return of the loan,
which might be humiliating to all