GIRL CLERK SLAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 175, 26 July 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

GIRL CLERK SLAIN.

LOVE AFFAIRS REVEALED.

Love trysts kept by Mary Barker came to light as authorities grilled two salesmen arrested in connection with the slaying of the pretty young Navy Department clerk, at Washington. Miss Baker was raped and shot to death oil the lonely outskirts of Arlington Cemetery a few weeks ago. Mervin S. Sisson, 35, a married hardware salesman, and Julian E. Gallagher, 28, both of Warsaw, Vancouver, were arrested after their friendship with the slain -girl was traced through her letters and the testimony of her housemates, Olga Skinner and Mildred Sperry. Both have established airtight' alibis.

Grilled from midnight antil 4 o'clock in the morning,' Sisson admitted relations with Miss Baker, according to W. C. Gloth, Arlington county prosecutor.

Gloth said Sisson told of a party on March 22 at a Baltimore hotel with Gallagher, Miss Baker, and another girl. Gallagher was said to have taken two rooms, registering, as J. Morgan, wife and daughter. Sisson later joined Gallagher and the two girls in their suite, Gloth said. It was developed that Sisson first met Miss Baker when she was on a visit to her home in Oak Grove, Vancouver. Sisson told Gloth he had written the girl ,many notes, and spent several week-ends with her in Washington and elsewhere. He said he did not come forward with his story because he did not want/his wife to know.

The most valuable clue ■in the hands of the investigators is the dead girl's effects, discovered stuffed in a sewer manhole near the culvert where the body was found. These include a man's glove and scarf.

In the bundle also was found the girl's coat and hat and handbag containing a bank book showing a balance of £168, and a receipt for eight shares of , CurtissWright common stock. ,