FOUND DEAD IN CAR

Southland Times, Issue 22767, 18 December 1935, Page 5

FOUND DEAD IN CAR

AMERICAN CINEMA ACTRESS. VICTIM OF EXTORTION PLOT. (United Press Assn. —Telegraph Copyright.) Los Angeles, December 16. Thelma Todd, cinema comedienne, who was the victim of an extortion plot which allegedly made her live in terror of her life for the past nine months, was to-day found dead in her automobile near a cafe which she operated on the coast highway north of Santa Monica. The police were summoned to the scene and were non-committal. One detective, apparently the first to arrive, declared that death was “homicidal.” Other police officers stated that the circumstances appeared to indicate suicide. A later message states that an autopsy was taken, but the cause of death is still a mystery. The presence of monoxide poisoning in the blood led to the belief that she was killed by fumes from the automobile exhaust either by accident or by suicide. Blood around the mouth and nose and dislocation of a gold filling in a tooth could not be accounted for. However, there was no positive evidence of foul play. According to Miss Todd s associates at the cafe which she operated with Roland West, the actress went to a cabaret party at Los Angeles on Saturday night with her mother and friends. Her failure to return the same evening or the following day caused no worry as she was often away for week-ends. To-day a search was started and the body found in West’s garage, where Miss Todd kept her automobile. Her chauffeur said he drove her back from the party after which she dismissed him, saying she would put the car away herself. Miss Todd, a native of Massachusetts, was a school teacher when victory in a beauty contest started' her on a motion picture career. One of the most unusual extortion cases, and notable because it involved a cinema comedienne, Thelma Todd, was revealed on November 7 with the arrest by Federal Department Justice agents of Edward Schiffert, aged 2G, for attempting to obtain 10,000 dollars from the screen star. The circumstances of the case are almost unbelieveable. Schiffert, who gave himself up, had great difficulty in convincing the authorities that he was the culprit since another man, Harry Schimanski, janitor of the flat where Schiffert lived, was arrested last August and charged with the crime. It was shown that both men had handwriting between which experts were unable to distinguish and which was exactly alike in the notes sent to Miss Todd. The voices of both men were also strangely alike. Because notes continued to be received by the actress even after Schimanski’s arrest. Justice agents were now convinced that Schiffert, not the janitor, sent them.