Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-09-21

] fU~yCdI ~Olu ICdI CcIdIC man III
Lake Jackson, Va, has gen.
Grated a mystery which con-
POUNDS police and hides a
killer.
Investigators apparently have
detected no new clue in the
death of Richard L. Lester. ST.,
a kindly man distinguished by
his friendliness.
Mr.. Lester was shot under
the kind of circumstances that
usually occur only in the mag
nation of a writer Of bizarre
fiction.
Some Of the 1000 summer
time inhabitants of the little
resort community, four miles
south Of Manassas, have locked
up their cabins until the enig-
ma is solved.
No Motive Found
The so families who live in
Lake jackson the year around
and the Prince william County
Sheriff's Office which has in
vestigated the case for a week
can offer no plausible motive
for the murder Of a man every
one liked.
For a week the Prince VIII
liam County sheriff's force.
aided by a State investigator,
have been RESTING the known
facts. Each repetition ends up
| in the same cul de sac.
They think it more than CO.
incidence that the urbane Mr..
Lester, a jaunty man belying
his years, had returned to the
lake only two days before he
was shot. Since August, 1857,
he had been working with one
of his three sons, Hodge. in
st. Louis on an indefinite leave.
Victim Well Liked
on September IL he showed
up again at the lake to reclaim
his cabin apartment at the rear
Of the development company
Office. The building is near the
lake, the rear facing Route 234,
about 200 feet away.
Greeting him were the Al
paugh brothers, Walter A., Sc;
Luther, 81, and Woodrow, AZ,
who are president, vice presi-
dent and salesman, respectively,
of the development firm.
II never saw him in such
good spirits" Luther Alpaugh
recalled. HE was a good sales
man. a good closing man-one
of the incest fellows you could
hope to meet or talk to. Every
body liked him. 1t is hard to
! figure out how anybody could
have done a thing like this"
Mr.. Lester, who had been with
the firm IL years, seemed happy
to be back among his friends.
Planned Missouri Trip
But according to his son,
Hodge, Mr.. Lester had no in
tention of remaining long at
the lake
II have been negotiating for
land to develop at the Lake of
the Ozarks in Missouri" Hodge
Lester told The Star. dad had
expected to visit his old friends
around the lake and Washing
ton and join me later on the
development project"
The younger Mr.. Lester said
his father wanted to check on
some bushes deals while In the
area, and it was mainly for this
purpose he had returned,
What he did at the lake Fri
day has not been developed, but
the last trace of his activities
was at $50 Friday evening
when he had lunch at the lodge
not far from his cabin.
Murder Time Set
Most Investigators share the
opinion the shooting occurred
between 4 and 6 a. m. Satur-
day. Mr.. Lester habitually rose
early and had several cups of
coffee to start his day.
Luther Alpaugh holds to the
possibility Mr.. Lester was shot
about IL pm. Friday. He said
he heard a shot at that time
while tuning his television set.
Mr.. Alpaugh's home is about
quarter of a mile across the
lake from the murder scene.
AS Sheriff T. d. Wheeling,
State Investigator Jack E. Hall