MIAMI SHOOTING

Evening Star, Issue 21093, 4 May 1932, Page 9

MIAMI SHOOTING

DEATH OF HADEN CLARKE CAPTAIN LANCASTER ARRESTED Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. NEW YORK, May 2. A message from Miami states that Captain Lancaster has been arrested and charged with the murder of Haden Clarke, following an alleged confession that ho forged the suicide notes to Mrs Keith Miller. CAPTAIN LANCASTER’S STATEMENT NEW YORK, May 3. (Received May 4, at 10 a.m.) The State Attorney quoted Captain Lancaster as admitting freely that he wrote and signed the suicide notes, which the handwriting experts pronounced as forgeries. The Attorney said: “ Captain Lancaster told me that when he was awakened by the shooting which took place in the room which the two men occupied, his first thought was to protect himself and ‘ Chubbie ’ (Mrs Keith Miller) by writing the notes on Clarke’s typewriter.” The Attorney quoted Captain Lancaster as saying that he “ attempted to revive Clarke, who was unconscious from a bullet wound in the head.” The Attorney continued: “Captain Lancaster’s purpose, he told me, was to have Clarke sign the suicide notes.” When Captain Lancaster was unable to arouse Clarke, the Attorney said, quoting Captain Lancaster, he took a pencil and signed one note “ Haden ” and the other “H.”

Mrs Keith Miller was not held to-day as a witness, but will be called later. Her statement said: “I am absolutely confident that everything will come out all right. 1 know the truth and know that Captain Lancaster is innocent. My faith remains unshaken.” Captain Lancaster, in asserting Ins innocence, said: “I wrote the notes that Clarke might sign them and thus save us from being implicated' in his death, but he died before he could help me.”

[Clarke was fatally wounded in bed a few hours after he and Mrs Miller had told Captain Lancaster of their plans to be married. Mrs Miller’s acquaintance with Clarke turned into lovo as she wrote the story of her life. At the funeral service Mrs Miller met Mrs Ida Clarke, mother of the dead man. The women embraced and wept. The investigators said that notes left by Clarke pointed conclusively to suicide. Mrs Clarke agreed, and said her son had financial worries. Mrs Miller and Captain Lancaster were ■ emphatic in their assertions that Clarke took his own life. Letters found by the investigators from Mrs Miller and Clarke to Captain Lancaster told of their intentions to marry, and in an answering telegram from Captain Lancaster he told the two that ho did not want to be a dog in the manger, and wished them every happiness. Ho urged that they should defer their marriage till his return. One of Clarke's notes, addressed to Captain Lancaster, read; “Bill, 1 can’t make the grade. Tell Chubbie of our talk. My advice is never to leave her again.’’ A note to Mrs Miller said; “The economic situation is such that 1 can’t go through with it. You have Bill; ho is the whitest man I know.”]