A Blind Man's Alleged Request.

Mt Benger Mail, 20 August 1919, Page 3

A Blind Man's Alleged Request.

GAVE ELEVEN POUNDS TO BE THROWN INTO RIVER. An extraordinary story has just been related by Aubrey Dennison, "the Chicago Kid," who surrendered to the 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 ill. 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 with Dennison'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 u»e night last summer," he >a J. "about August .19 as 1 remember, when Lewis and I were together. Lewis was drunk, and 1 was half drunk. He was complaining that he was a burden to himself and to everyone else, and said he would give me 55d0l to kill him. I did so. Then I threw liis 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 Lewisville 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 River that would correspond to that of the man whom Dennison said lie murdered.. He wired to Lewisville to obtain furthcr particulars of the crime. The ab~ weakens it in the eyes of the police, sence of details in Dennison's story and they declined to commit themselves as to its probable authenticity. The Kentucky authorities are holding Dennison on a charge of vagrancy. "Maybe {his man wants a free ride to Chicago," said Captain Smith, f 'and will repudiate his confession as soon as he reaches the town." ,„

There arc many lonely spots along the Calumet River where a murder could be committed and nono 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 murdered confessed,