Evening star., 1954-04-28
Police Seek 10 Verify
Repudiated Story
OF Soriano Staying

Police today began the pick
and-shovel detective chore Of
trying to back up Woodrow Will
son Browns repudiated confess
sion in the Halloween strangle-
Staying of Florence Soriano.
The 35-year-old Navy veteran
told Philadelphia police Monday.
in a signed statement, that he
had throttled the young Chinese
American mother, II. when she
repulsed his advances on the
fatal night l8 months ago.
Returned to Washington YES
terday, Brown appeared today
before Chief Municipal Judge
Leonard P. Walsh. Judge Walsh
granted request by Assistant
United States Attorney Kenneth
Wood to continue the case until
May 26 and ordered Brown held
without bond.
Q. B. Parker. court-appointed
defense attorney, asked for an
immediate mental examination
for Brown. Judge Walsh in
formed him that any decision on
that rested exclusively with the
court which eventually will take
the case.
When Washington detectives
appeared in Philadelphia to bring
hlm back to the Capital, Brown
olSavowed his confession and
said lit was all a mistake"
Asserts He Was Drunk.
He was drunk when he made
1t, he said, and merely wanted
to come back here to see his
estranged wife. whose name. he
said, was Dorothy, an employe
at Arlington Hall.
Brown told the same story in
Philadelphia police court yester-
day. altering it only slightly when
he waived his right to fight ex-
tradition in Quarter Sessions
Court before Judge Charles L.
Guerin. Then he said he wanted
to come back to get himself
Strengthened out" on the slay-
ing charge.
Brown was turned over, then,
to Detective Sergts. Grayston w.
Chapman and Clarence R. Wine
miller of the Metropolitan Police
force, who brought him back to
Washington by train.
Questioned at Night.
He was questioned until nearly
midnight by detectives led by 1t.
Lawrence A. Hartnett, but re-
fused to change his story that
he had not killed Miss Soriano.
He increased to four the num-
ber of mental institutions IN
which he said he had been con-
fined, leaving police with still
more checking to do on his own
story.
Police said today that Brown
was known to frequent the bars
in the neighborhood of Tenth
street and Massachusetts, ave-
nue. NV, where Miss Soriano
was last seen with servicemen
on Halloween night, 1852.
At that time. Brown was en-
ployed as a machine lathe op-
orator by the Maryland Elec-
tronic Manufacturing Corp, 5OO9
Calvert ioad, College Park.
j. Edgar Richardson, person.
mel director there, said today
that Brown had been hired JULY
Z. 1852, while he was still work.
ing as a route helper for the
Manhattan Laundry.
Company records show, Mr..
Richardson said, that Brown re-
signed November IA. exactly two
weeks after the killing.
They also show that Brown
worked from AIS pm. to 1:16
IN. that Halloween night. Po-
lice have estimated Miss Soriano
was killed about 2:45 am. an
hour and a half after Brown
left his lathe.
Police also planned to talk to
Browns wife to learn whether
their eStrangement dated from
before or after the date of the
killing. They have daughter.
Cynthia Ann, 7, now living with
relatives at Paw Greek, N. C.
Both Brown and his wife are
from North Carolina. He was
born in Fayetteville August %,
1910