BLIND MAN'S ALLEGED REQUEST.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLVI, Issue 17, 26 August 1919, Page 8

BLIND MAN'S ALLEGED REQUEST.

GAVE ELEVEN POUNDS-TO BE THROWN INTO RIVER. ; An extraordinary story has just beon related by Aubrey Dennison, "the Chicago Kid," who surrendered to tho. ! Louisville police It was, in effect, that an old, blind, and helpless man named Dave Lewis gave Dennison £ll to have himself killed. Dennison said he accepted the £ll. put the old man out of the way, and threw his body into the Calumet River. The Chicago police are investigating. They are not entirely satisfied withDennison's "confession" and will not bring him back until they have investigated it. Lewis, the "kid" told the Lewisville authorities, was a expert machinist, who was no longer able to make a living for himself or his family. A BURDEN TO HIMSELF. "It was c*e night last summer," he said, "about August 19 as I remember, when Lewis and I were together. Lewis was drunk, and I was half drunk. He was complaining that he was a burden to himself and to cveryono else, and said he would give me 55d0l to kill him. I did so. Then I threw his body into the Calumet River. I had been going with his sixteen-year-old daughter, Mabel, for about a year." Records at the Coroner's Office show only one identified body in the lake about the time of the supposed death of Lewis. A body was taken from the lake, September 13, about ten miles south of Michigan City, According to the records, it had been in the water about one month. There were no marks of violence, and death was due to drowning, the Coroner's jury decided. , ABSENCE OF DETAILS. ■Captain Joseph Smith, of the South Chicago police, received word of the Louisville arrest and immediately- began an investigation of records of his station to see if Lewis had been reported missing last summer or if a body had ever been found in the Calumet Kiver that would correspond to that of the man whom Dennison said he murdered. He wired to Lewisville to obtain further particulars of the crime. The absence of details in Dennison's story weakens it in the eyes of the police, and they declined to commit themselves as to its probable authenticity. The Kentucky authorities arc holding Dennison on a charge of vagrancy. "Maybe this man wants a free ride to Chicago," said Captain Smith, "and will repudiate his confession as soon as he roaches the town.''' r There arc many lonely spots along the Calumet River where a murder could be committed and none be the wiser. If the body of the victim were weighted before it was thrown into the stream it might never be discovered, and all evidence of the crime could be concealed unless the numleier confessed.