Mrs. Clara P. Smith of Dorchester, 72 years of age, was found dead in her room at Sumner Hall, a dormitory of the Rice School of the Spoken Word at Oak Bluffs, early Sunday morning. From several wounds about her head and one on her body, Dr. Francis C. Buckley, medical examiner, decided that death had been due to violence.
At the completion of an autopsy, early yesterday afternoon, District Attorney William C. Crossley issued the following statement: “That the cause of death was injury to the brain, due to fracture of the skull; that death had been almost instantaneous, the victim having breathed no more than twice following the blow; that there were marks on the throat but not sufficiently in evidence as to signify strangulation; and that the victim had been criminally assaulted.”
Mr. Crossley announced at that time that the questioning of persons likely to have any information would begin at once at the state police barracks. He was obliged to leave at 4 to keep a speaking engagement, but was expected to return this morning. In the meantime the investigation is in progress and the traditional police dragnet is spread.
Ordered an Autopsy
State Detective Ernest S. Bradford and Assistant District Attorney Edward J. Harrington were summoned at once, and reached the Island on the late boat Sunday. They began their investigation immediately, and an autopsy was ordered. Before nightfall Mr. Harrington was able to state definitely that Mrs. Smith had been murdered.
Additional officers were assigned to the case in short order by Capt. John F. Stokes of the state police, who ordered Lieut. John F. Dempsey, Lieut. Francis W. Clemmey and Sergt. Thomas Tompkins, the latter a state police photographer and finger print expert, to hasten to the Island. Dr. Buckley was assisted in the autopsy by Dr. Joseph Walker and Dr. Alan Moritz of Harvard, state pathologists, and by Dr. Herbert Lund, also of Harvard. Dr. Moritz is professor of legal medicine at Harvard.
It was reported at first that the motive for the murder was theft. None of the early reports concerning the case seemed to give any basis for believing the crime to be premeditated. In the absence of any definite information, it seemed consistent with all the facts to believe that the murderer had expected to steal from Mrs. Smith, and might have been alarmed by some outcry on her part which he attempted to prevent. Subsequent disclosures discounted this belief.
Mrs. Smith and her husband, Walter N. Smith, who died a year ago last March, were readers in the Christian Science church for twenty years, and she carried on the work after his death. Mrs. Smith came to the Island on June 12 to take the course for the June term at the Rice School of the Spoken Word. This course consisted of study of the Bible and diction. She had never been at the school before.
Was to Have Left Sunday
Miss Pearl Bleakney, also of Dorchester, arrived on June 15 and was a companion of Mrs. Smith here. Miss Bleakney had been here in other years and had friends at the school. She and Mrs. Smith had rooms in Sumner Hall, and they were to have left for Nantucket on Sunday, and to have gone from there to their homes in Dorchester. When Mrs. Smith failed to appear on Sunday morning, Miss Bleakney went to her room and found the body.
As soon as Dr. Buckley reached the scene he called Chief of Police Augustus F. Amaral, and Chief Amaral summoned Sergt. A. N. Altieri of the state police. The officers concluded, as Dr. Buckley had done, that a crime had been committed, and Mrs. Smith’s body was ordered removed to the Martha’s Vineyard Funeral Home, and the office of the district attorney was notified.
Rumors began to spread, and most of them were neither denied nor confirmed by the police or the district attorney. One report was to the effect that rings usually worn by the victim could not be found, and that a suspect was being trailed by the police. Neither these rumors nor stories relative to the injuries inflicted upon Mrs. Smith could be verified Sunday night or Monday morning, the authorities simply declaring that information concerning the injuries would be available in the report of the medical experts.
District Attorney Crossley made a flying trip from New Hampshire to join the doctors and officers who arrived at the Island on the first boat yesterday. Dr. Lund accompanied the physicians and pathologists, and assisted in the autopsy which took place about noon. Dr. Walker and assistants from the state police made a minute examination of the room in which the crime took place, and the other officers, assisted by Chief Amaral, were all engaged in the routine business of organizing for a criminal hunt and gathering together and classifying the evidence that was obtained. Elvin Hauser, court stenographer, accompanied the district attorney, and took notes on all findings.
Body Found on Bed
It was learned that Mrs. Smith’s body was discovered on the bed, clad in night apparel. The room was somewhat disordered, the screen having been removed from the window and the window itself was partly open. There was a splash of blood on a wall several feet from the bed on which the body lay. Possibility that entry to the room had been made through the window was discounted, however, partly because of its height from the ground and partly because of the nature of the crime suggested a narcotic addict or a sex maniac who would have been more likely to enter the ground floor, in the belief of the police.
It was unofficially declared by police officers that the criminal must have gained admission by the main entrance, traversed the lower hall and living room, ascended a flight of stairs and made his way down another hall to enter the room. Between twenty and thirty women and girls were occupying the various rooms, none of which was locked, and the outer door was also unlocked, according to common practice.
The partitions between the rooms in Sumner Hall are extremely light, consisting of composition board without plastering. Apparently the noise made by the murderer was actually heard by several occupants of the dormitory who remembered it later. At the time, they said, they thought perhaps Mrs. Smith was having a nightmare.
That robbery might have been a partial motive was not seriously considered by the police at the start, since it was established that the victim had no amount of money and few valuables in her possession, having turned in her money to the office. Her diamond ring, habitually worn on the third finger of her left hand with a wedding ring, was missing and a bruised finger suggested that it had been forcibly removed. However, officials at the dormitory said that Mrs. Smith had twice lost her ring during her stay there, and that it had been found later in the bathroom or elsewhere where she had carelessly left it. It was also said that she usually removed the ring at night and put it in some place of safekeeping which might not be found easily.
Subject to Heart Attacks
Occupants of the dormitory and officials of the school at first regarded the affair as one of natural events. It was said that Mrs. Smith was subject to heart attacks, and that she had suffered two during her stay. Those who found the body attached no importance to the wounds on her head, for it was believed that she might have fallen while trying to open the window which was so arranged that the screen must be removed first. The nature of the tragedy continued to be kept secret from the school at large since the police were in plain clothes and the rumor spread that motion pictures were being taken in the vicinity. This belief was supported by the presence of several photographers.
Miss Bleakney, who discovered the body, did not care to be photographed and covered her face while running to escape the aim of a Boston daily photographer. Others, however, appeared to be thrilled with the prospect of being in or near a movie shot. Phidelah Rice, who with Mrs. Rice, owns the school property, has been ill in his home on the nearby Highlands, and news of the affair was kept from him.
Although police had nothing to say on the subject yesterday, there is a certain amount of local inclination toward the theory of a marijuana addict. It is known that there has been a limited amount of traffic in the drug on the Island within the past few years. It was generally admitted by the experienced officers that the nature of the crime and various features surrounding it were typical of a marijuana addict, but they also said that certain types of sex criminals might be expected to follow the same general tactics.
Mrs. Smith’s son, Clarence L. Smith of Seymour, Conn., arrived yesterday and arranged for removal of his mother’s body to the mainland today.
Continue Questioning Until 2 A. M.
The examination of persons who might have some information which could be used in solving the crime was continued until 2 this morning by Assistant District Attorney Harrington and the police. The only statement made public by the authorities this morning was a description of the watch and ring belonging to Mrs. Smith which are still missing. A description of the two pieces of jewelry was broadcast by radio this morning for the information of pawnshops and police officers. State Detective Bradford reiterated that the robbery did not appear to be a primary motive, the crime being one of sex, but a bruise on Mrs. Smith’s finger indicated that the ring might have been torn from her hand.
The watch is described as a Waltham, 14 carat, white gold, Tonneau, square shaped with turned corners. The movement has fifteen jewels. The case is numbered 554,777, and the movement is numbered 505053-24.
The ring is a twin setting, diagonally, 14 carat gold, chromium plated, each diamond being three quarters of a carat. There are carved orange blossoms on each stem.
Sumner Hall, where the tragedy occurred, is a woman’s dormitory of the Rice School, conducted for many years by Mr. and Mrs. Phidelah Rice. Under the present arrangement it has no connection with the Rice Playhouse which is being operated this summer under lease to Charles Emerson Cook and Paul H. Whitney. Many of the early reports were confused and exaggerated, the school and the theatre being mentioned interchangeably.
Excitement at the school was kept at a minimum, most of the students knowing nothing of what had happened until an announcement was made yesterday morning.