Washington Times, 15 February 1929, page 2: 40 arrested in weird gang killings

Page 2 of the Washington Times, 15 February 1929, carrying the continuation of a front-page story under the headline “40 ARRESTED IN WEIRD GANG KILLINGS.” One headline word is illegible in the Library of Congress OCR; the page image reads “WEIRD.” The front page of the issue was not opened for this record.

The continuation reports that “Coroner Herman N. Bundesen has empanelled a jury of expert business men to hold an inquest,” that “Police Commissioner Russell blamed prohibition for the massacre,” and that “the Federal Government is sending Assistant United States District Attorneys to attend the inquest.” It lists the victims with ages and descriptions as police gave them, including “Myers, Adam, alias Frank Schneider,” a name other papers print as Heyers or Hyers. The same page carries a short International News Service item from Detroit in which a police inspector there calls the theory that Detroit’s “Purple Gang” did the killings ridiculous.

The headline count of arrests and the descriptions of the dead are the paper’s and the police’s on the day. This archive does not take a cause or a culprit from this page.