Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-07-11

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student Of the late. Montgomery
Ward Thorne told police today
the young mail order heir
smoked q marijuana cigarette
with q parking lot attendant in
the Harlem district Of New York
last winter.
The student. Charles Magistro
of Akron. Ohio, said young
Thorne bought six marijuana
cigarettes when Mr.. Magistro ac-
companied him on "a dopelbuy-
ing expedition" shortly after
Christmas.
Mr.. Magistro said Mr.. Thorne
did not specify what kind Of mar
cotics he was after but seemed
disappointed when all he could
get was marijuana cigarettes. !"
Mr.. Magistro, who attended
Fordham University near New
York with Monty, said they also
went to Greenwich Village flour
or five times" but he did not
specify whether these trips were
for dope.
The question Of whether or not
young Tl1orne used narcotics is
one Of the key issues facing in
vestigators seeking a solution to
his mysterious death June 10.
Mr.. Magistro Is the first person
to say yes.
Narcotics is one Of the agents
blamed for Monty's sudden
death. The big question is
whether Monty injected the SUBJ
stance into his own veins or
whether it was done by another
party-d deliberately to kill or as
an accidental overdose.
Traces Of Drug Found.
A panel Of medical scientists
may decide Monday whether
Monty died an apparently nat
ural death or whether a con-
certed hunt should be pressed
for his slayer.
Mr.. Magistro did not connect
young Thorne with the use OF
any narcotics other than mari
juana. However, marijuana was
not implicated in young Thorne'S
death. Traces of morphine,
which could only have been In
jected by hypodermic needle,
were found.
Mr.. Magistro was brought to
Chicago by Joseph Gallo, inves-
tigator for attorneys for Mrs.
Marion Thorne, mother Of the
dead youth. Mr.. Gallo took q
statement from him in Akron
and then had him repeat his
story to Chicago investigators.
Mr.. Magistro said that when
he went to Harlem with Monty
in Monty's car. the young heir
handed him a pistol from the
glove compartment and had him
place it on the floor of the back
seat.
"When I asked him why he
had q gum" Mr.. Magistro said,
''Thorne said he had had trouble
with Negroes in Chicago"
Heir to 81 Million.
Mr.. Magistro said the pair
drove to a parking lot in Harlem.
talked to an attendant who got
into their car and then drove to
q tavern where the attendant
picked up the rnarijuana.
HE offered me one" said Mr..
Magistro, shut ! didn't want 1t. ]
hope the newspapers get that
straight. The parking lot at
tendant refused to get out Of the
car after we drove back and
then Thorne gave him q ciga-
rette, too. / got out Of the car
because it smelled too much"
Young Thorne, found dead In
his small $75-a-moldth room on
Chicago's Near North Side, was
heir to a mail order fortune
worth nearly 50 million. He
| would have been 81 years old In
October. On that date. his
monthly income from his fathers
trust was due to make the first
of a series Of progressive jumps
Friends say he was planning
to marry 18-year-old Maureen
Ragen in December.
Revised His viii.
Only nine days before his
death, he drastically revised his
will, leaving three-fourths Of his
estate to Maureen and her
mother, Mrs. Aleen Ragen. His
own mother, sole beneficiary un-
der his original will drafted two
years earlier, was left q one
eighth share.
| Monty's body, rigid in death.
was found by the building mana
ger. Coroner's physicians found
nine puncture marks in his arms,
but no evidence Of violence.
DR.. Harry Leon, coroner's
pathologist who compiled the
medical report, said death was
caused by a lethal, breath halt
ing combination Of narcotics, a
sleeping drug. and beverage and
wood alcohol.
He advanced the theory that
drugs were injected into young
Thorne's veins shortly before his
death by a person or persons un-