Evening Star Newspaper, July 22, 1930, Page 5

. FATHER CONFESSES SLAYING CHILOREN ‘Martinsburg Man Re-Enacts Crime at Pool Where Three Bodies Were Found. Speciel Dispatch to The Star. MARTINSBURG, W. Va.. July 22 Taylor Hott, 35, who yesterday col fessed to the slaying of his three chil- | dren by drowning in a quarry hole near here Sunday night, late last night was | taken to the scene by State officers and Teenacted the crime His acting tallied with his declara- tion he cauced death by drowning, al- | though an autopsy showed all three | children to have been dead by suffo- cation before they touched water. Hott reiterated at the scene that the'| strips of flannel cloth found about the | he told the children, only to water from their mouths while he took | th°m for a swim. The State's theory is that he strangl- | d the children. the cloths being found | #hout the necks and. according to phy- sicians, being too tight to permit being | stretched to cover the mouth. | Hott’s onlv motive, according to his | Confession. was that his wife was not | eble to care for the children. Motive Held Inadequate. ! State officers are not satisfied with the adequacy of the motive. It develop- ed today that Hott had also taken a dog belonging to the children to the drowning site and had half burled it under stones on a ledge. The dog was heard to bark Monday morning about the time the bodies of the children were discovered, and was rescued. Marks on it indicated some one had attempted | to kill the dog. | Hott was formally arraigned this aft- ernoor: accused of deliberate, wilful, malicions and felonious slaying of the three children and waived a_hearing He was held without boid for the $rand jury. His only reply to a query as to whether he wished a preliminary hear- ing was, “I killed them.” He was not zepresented by counsel and was imme- diately returned to jail. The children were Gertrude Virginia, 1; Calvin William, 6, and Floyd Pres- ton, 5. Hott's confession said he took them to the quarry hole on the edge of the State road south of this city, | g‘:\g'-gud them and pushed them into the vater. Were Not Drowned, An autopsy performed at gtance of Coroner H. G. Tonkin by three physicians indicated all had died of suffocation No water was found in any lung, contradicting Hott's story that they died of drowning. The body of Floyd, the younger boy, showed a penknife penetration ai the foot- of the nose. a fractured skull, contracted eyes. He apparently had been mis- treated the most sericusly. Asked about blood stains at the scene, Hott told officers one child had cut its foot in going down the clope to the water. For several hours following discovery of the bodies there was no identification | and officials began to suspect the bodies had been brought from the outside or dropped by a tourist. As news of the find spread, hundreds of persons called to attempt identification, and a woman finally said they were the Hott children. The parents, summoned, identified them. They set up an alibi. however. Hott contended he had given his children Sunday evening to a mountain family. friends, named Kidwell, who_ promised to keep them for a week. Mrs. Hott | said this was the story Hott told her Sunday night. when he failed to bring back the children after taking them for a walk. She accepted the story in good faith. Later when officers were told a neighbor had seen Hott in the qguarry section about 8:30, his story began to weaken, and a confession fol- lowed. Hott later said he and his wife had the in- Bud'gel Your Purchases A modern, semsible way buving. A small Photo shows home of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor Hott, just off a main thorough- necks of the children were put on, as | fare, at Martinsburg, W. Va., from which Sunday evening the father took his pushed them into the quarry water, The house i which the fami and has been without employment. charg lowing confess MOONSHINE SETS Only Rain Can Check Blazes‘ the three children, aged 5, 6 and 7, to a quarry hole, suffocated them and then without windows, and the picture indicates the poverty in parents and three children—lived. The father is a laborer He is in jail facing a first-degree murder separated fronts. one on the mountain above Mount Briar and Harpers Ferry, on the Maryland side of the Potomac River, and the other on Fairview Moun- tain. For nearly a week the fire above Mount Briar and Harpers Ferry has burned with unrelenting fury, wiping out scores of moonshine cam>s, it r.as been reported. The Mount Briar and Frog Hollow sections are among the most notorious monshine rendezvous in the Eastern United States 1t is estimated thai several thousand | acres of timberland have becn burned on Maryland Moun- tains. Special Dispatch to The Star: HAGERSTOWN, Md., July 22. -—Onl)" rain was seen today as a _means of | checking two of the worst forest fires | in the history of Western Maryland. | The mou~tains were so dry and ti heat so intense that scores of fire- fighters found it impossible to resort to | back-firing, the most effective way of | checking mountain fires. The fires were burning on two widely had the .children on a walk, but she declined to come on downtown with him and the children. When he re- turned to their home, she was not thert he said. She returned about 11 o'clock, Drs. James 8. Duff, V. L. Glover and G. O Martin, performed the autopsy. Their conclusion was that all three children were dead before they touched the water. Apparently in Poverty. The family has been living here some years, coming from Hampshire County. W. Va. Their home here was an almost win- dowless one, off a main thoroughfare, and apparently they lived in dire pov- erty. ’;‘o a reporter who suggested the heat might have affected her husband's mind, Mrs. Hott said she noted noth- ing different in his conduct Sunday. | She said he had not been working for some time, but added he was a good worker and took every job he could find. She denied that he drank or had | been drinking recently. Monday morning, she said, she and her husband went out to look for work for him. When they returned about noon, she said an officer was waiting for them with the bad news. Hott confessed, officers said, after they had visited the third Kidwell (the name of the family to whom he said he | had given the children) in the county and each time Hott had told them it | Finally they | | was the wrong family, secured the confession. Our Great Air Cooling System Washes and cools over, and today firefighters, whe have become exhausted after days of fight- ing, had virtualiy abandoned the fire lines. Blaze Spectacular. The Mount Briar fire is cne of fhe most spectacular eve rseen in ‘he Blue Ridge range, the heavens in the South- ern end of Washington County being lighted brilliantly at’ night. The fire on Fairview Mountain has been burning since Saturday night, when it was first discovered about a mile northwest of Clearspring, Md. The “fire had crossed the mountain sometime during the night and was eating iis way toward Indian Springs, another small village along the na- tional highway. No towns were in its | path and but few buildings. Lafige quantities of cord wood, how- ever, have been destroyed. It' was impossible today to estimate the extent of damage. ‘CALL Ofi MACDONALD LONDON, July 22 (#).—American delegates to the Inter-Parliamentary Conference, headed by Representative Andrew Jackson Montague of Virginia, called at No. 10 Downing street and were received by Prime Minister Mac- Donald. ‘The visitors remained for some time. going through several rooms before leaving for the royal gallery of the House of Lords where their sessions are ELECTRIC FANS! % MUDDIMAN & 911 G Street Phones NAT. 0140-2622 | Montgomery Officials Resign Viaaua by i« dian, 3 COMMISSINERS QU ASDIRECTORS Places in Maryland Pub- lishing Co. BY WILLIAM S. TARVER, Staff Correspondent of The Star. SIVER SPRING, Md., July 22.—With a hearing on injunction proceedings against the commissioners of Mont- gomery County but eight days distance, | the three officials, who were directors of | the Maryland Publishing Co., have re-| signed their directorships their | stock has been cancelled, it was learned today. Reasons Set Out. | The bill in equity, was filed July 7, ! and requests that the commissioners and | county _ treasurer be enjoined from | letting contracts for county advertising and printing to the Maryland Publish- | ing Co., and from paying bills already | duc on’such contracts. The proceed- | ings were filed in the name of Walter W. Mobley a well-to-do taxpayer of Derwood, Md. The bill sets out as reason for the request that three of the county com- missioners are stockholders and di- | rectors of the Maryland Publishing Co. | and that the code of public laws of the | State of Maryland makes it an illegal and indictable offense for a county | commissioner to enter into any agree- | ment in his official capacity which | may react to his personal profit. | Four Alleged as Stockholders. "The ‘commissioners who have severed their ' connection with . the publishing company are Dr. Benjamin C. Perry, | president of the board; Lacy Shaw, | vice president, and Clagett Hilton. Al | three were directors and their names | had appeared on the masthead ‘of the | Maryland News as such. | The bill alleges that a fourth com- | missioner, Robert L. Hickerson, was a stockholder in the corporation. Con- firmation of this was later printed in the Maryland News, publication of the Maryland Publishing Co. Whether his | stock has been cancelled could not be | learned today. Maj. E. Brooke Lee, president of the Maryland Publishing | Co., said this would not be made pub- | lic until the defendants come into court to show cause why the injunction | should not be issued. | Judge Signs Order. | An order nisi recently was signed by Judge Robert B Peter in Rock- | ville Circuit Court, setting July 30 as | | the 1ast day on which the defendants | | may appear in court and file their ! ! answer o the plea for an injunction. | Al the county commissioners and J. | | Forest Walker, the county treasurer, | | were made defendants in the. original | bill. The action later was amended so that the defendants included the | Maryland Publishing Co. + Paris’ Automobile Salon will be held | in October. Outings! Let Us Supply the JANDWUCHES No matter how many sand- wiches your outing _requires, we're equipped to serve you. Made fresh, of the finest food- stuffs. > Phone for special prices. ve've been making sand: oW wiches 15 veats, so we know HOW. w for Phone MRS. J. R. CASTELL Metropolitan 7456 For Special Prices 400,000 cubic feet of dir every hour to lower the temperature of our street floor and basement store. of sum down and the balance in convenient payments. 4 Days Left in Our 14 to 1% OFF Furniture Sale - THE HECHT CO. “F Street at Seventh” Thie is one of the many values youll find! $269 Four-Piece Bed Room Suite Walnut with bird’s-eye maple overlays. Dustproof construétiqn. interiors. Dresser, chest of drawers, bed and Hollywood vanity. '$10 Delivers It! Balance Mo Simmons Ace Springs, $42.50 nthly! Pourth Floor—The Hecht Co. Beauty Rest Mattress, $39.50 7T Save $126 Oak 5143 Deep Sleep Mattress, $23 Written Guarantee With Each Cleaner See it displayed on our First Floor The Premier Ju Offers home “fixing.” size bungalow on the fourth oor. X5 o REGISTRATION BILL DETAILS ARRANGED September 25-26 and Octo- ber 9-10 Planned as New Maryland Recording Days. Special Dispatch to The Star. BALTIMORE, July 22—Driails of the registration bill, to enact which ' Gov. Ritchie has issued the call for the | special session of the Legislature July | 29, were announced here yesterday at a | conference of the Governor and other | Democratic leaders. Decision to call the Legislature to change the registration days this Fall 50 a5 to prevent a conflict with Jewish holidays having been reached, the ques- tion remained as to how the change should be made. The simplest method ?ropmed is to fix the registration days for the Thurs- | days and Pridays foliowing the Tues- days, respectively, six and four weeks | ahead of election day, November 4. As! the law now stands, the registration days are the Tuesday and Wednesday six weeks before election day and the Tuesday and Wednesday four weeks before that date. This makes the registration days this year September 23 and 24, which con- flicts with Rosh Hashana, and October 7 and 8. which conflicts with the Feast of the Tabernacles. The Thursday and Friday of the same weeks would be September 25 and 26 and October 9 nd 10. Gov. Ritchie sald: “If it is found that there is a neces- sity for a permanent change, this could be done at the next regular session of the General Assembly:" The bill will affect between 26,000 and 30,000 Jewish voters in the city, it was sald. War Cifiriots in Near East. BALTIMORE (#).—Introduction of chariot warfare into the Near East is credited by Dr. William F. Albright of Johns Hopkins to a period contempo- raneous with the patriarchs of the Bible. The charioteers seem to have been Indo-Europeans. who with this new weapon established a military aris- tocracy. FOR SALE 1510 Buchanan St. N.W. Desirable 6-room brick home, located just ¥'s most popu- .. in_one of the Ta- . "It is thoroughly modern and in excellent condition. Price at rock bol- od value. tom to insure you evening from i to 9. Come out ai DONNELLY & PLANT 3123 14th St Col. 0838. Off With Corns In 3 Minutes Painless, Easy, No Irritation Shur-Off, the marvelous new corn remedy, will remove tough. old corns callouses in only 3 | minutes—without soaking, without waiting. It stops pain instantly. And it positively will not harm or irritate healthy skin. Simple as A, B, C to use. Just apply Shur-Off to the corn; keep it wet for two minutes. Then start peeling the corn or callous right off —root and 8! Any one can do it easily. All druggists sell ‘and recommend Shur-Off. Get a 50-cent bottle, use | it tonight, and enjoy the ease and comfort of corn-free feet.—Adyer- | tisement. el “Home Sweet Home” untold inspiration im See the life Lol LaoV. VETERANS TO BE GUESTS ' MARY ANN SILVER DEAD | 666 Boat Ride to Marshall Hall Ar|Member of Widely Known Virginia| g oo . o Hoadache or Nearalgia in ranged for Civil War Survivors. Family Succumbs at 89. 30 minutes, checks a Cold the first The Union veterans of the Civil War, | Special Dispatch to The St day, and checks Malaria in three days. their wives and widows will be enter-| MARTINSBURG, W. Va, July 22— | G M e autt & bowt tide to Marshall HAll | yprs. Mary Amnn Stiver, 89, megber of | 6 Also in Tablets , July 26, as guests of oln e 5 Camp, No. 2, and Ellen Spencer Mussey | ® Widely known Virginia family, died at | Tent, No. 1, Sons and Daughters of | the home of her son, former State Sena- | Union Veterans of the Civil War. 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