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TRAGEDY Of DEATH FOR TWO IN AUTO RIMIIRS(Continued from page one)ply of gasoline, all the tank woulc hold. We then drove to the corner oi Tampa and Fortune street. Miss Susit Eliot was standing on the sidewalk She got into the car and we drove tc Magnolia street in Hyde Park and took Mrs. Eliot in the car. We drove through West Tampa toward Green Springs. I started to turn out at the new road. He told me to go to the old road. I did so and turned into it When I had driven half a mile, I heard a crash of glass and a woman scream. I stopped t.ie car quickly and turned to see Mr. Mendenhall in trouble with the woman. I asked him to desist. He said, 'Let me alone; I am acting innlt;* | self-defense,’ I saw a pistol; heard a shot and fled. I heard several othershots.“I started toward Tampa. Soon saw an automobile coming from toward Tampa. I waved it down. Ed Haley was driving the car. I told him of the I trouble and asked him to take me to Tampa. He said: ‘Clearwater isnd^ ; where you want to go.’ He brought me here. I reported to Sheriff White-1 hurst.”Rev. Ticknor, who was in the cari’t Iwith Haley, when he picked up Stem-Rt pel, testified before a coroner’s jury m} at Clearwater on Saturday and said that Stomple called Haley to one sidest, Iand talked with him confidentially a few minutes. He did not seem tov-know then the real seriousness of the n j situation. Stemple’s story of the af-^ fair, as he told it to the three men, a Mr. Tickenor said, was that he was ^ driving at a fair rate of speed when ^ he heard the thud of a blow, the tink-, ling of glass, and, turning, cried out:\€‘‘My God, J. J., what are you doing?”, to which Mendenhall is said to haveilreplied: ‘‘You fool, I told you tostop.s Then it was. Stemple said, that the I c first shot was fired. He leaped into t the road and ran. He told Rev. Tick- Ionor and the others, according to Mr. Tickenor, that three or four more -hots-i were fired. He thought at first that1 Mendenhall wa.- shooting at him. When he met Haley he tried to get r Haley to take him back to Tampa, j Haley persuaded him that, as the af-; fair, whatever it might turn out to be,; had happened in Pinellas county, it I would be best to go on to Clearwatereand inform Sheriff Marvel Whithurst,0which was done. The sheriff thenwent back with him in another auto toI the “murder car.” There they found the charred remains of the two womeneand the burned car. j Mendenhall was considered one of the most enterprising citizen- of this section, and has accumulated considerable of this world’s goods. There have been many wagging tongugs recently as to his conduct. Several years f ago his wife was accidentally killedwhile handling her husband’s shotgun. He was arrested, but proved that the death was an accident. He later mar-! ried his housekeeper, it is alleged. He has a grown daughter, one of the most Charming and accomplished young wo-j men in this section.' In the public discussion of the casehut one motive is hinted at—desperation on the part of Mendenhall when threatened with accountability for alleged promises which Miss Eliot said he made to her. These promises, it is claimed, were that Mendenhall was to secure a divorce and marry Miss Eliot. It is stated that she accompanied Mendenhall to Chicago and that the possibility of a prosecution under the Mann act was even hinted at.Mendenhall was arrested at his own home in Clearwater a few hours after the death of the two women in the lonely road.
Newspaper Details
Bradentown Evening Journal
Bradentown, Florida, US
Mon, Jul 05, 1915
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Kenton C.
KY, USA 12 Apr 2025
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