Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 52

Detroit's Notorious Police Cases No. 6 Detroiters Voice Approval of Pedestrian Safety Program Nazis Spend Millions for More Babies 'Wivch of Defray' Murdered for Money EDITOR'S NOTE: This Is the sixth of a series of stories recalling, and bringing up to date Detroit's most notorious crime tories. Another article will appear on this page next Sunday. BV RALPH NELSON HAS THE CITY'S PEDESTRIAN SAFETY CAMPAIGN OF SIGNS AND SLOGANS MADE YOU ANY MORE CAREFUL IN CROSSING THE STREETS? BT EDWARD A. SHAXKE Km Pima Special News Serrlre BERLIN, Nov.

1 The Nazis plan to spend a billion reichsmarki BY JAMES S. HASKINS A MAJORITY of Detroiters approves the Common Council's action of continuing the City Traffic Engineering Bureau's pedestrian protection program until June 30, 1942, a poll conducted by the Sunday Free Press Forum reveals. A scientifically-selected cross-section of Detroiters answered this question: "Has the City's pedestrian safety campaign of signs and (slogans made you any more careful in crossing the streets?" and make her "the richest girl in Delray." When the girl asked the source of money, Mrs. Veres said "Mak is going to die pretty soon, and he's insured pretty this year to subsl dize marriages and babies. As part of the program to In- 68 29 3 YES NO UNDECIDED were always closely drawn.

And with each death a pall of silence descended upon the Hungarian colony. When Mak died, two days later, the police moved in. Detectives Whitman and Rose subjected the rooming house to a thorough search. crease population, the German gov The girl told police that she (In Percfntajt;) Alex Proczeo, 60, April 16, 1931, acute dilation of heart. Gabor' Veres, 35, Jan.

2, 1927, carbon monoxide. This man was Mrs. Veres' husband. He died In his garage while repairing his car after the garage door had shut. His insurance policy, which had lapsed, was reinstate ed by Mrs.

Veres four days before his death. Laszlo Tath, 88, Jan. 2, 1927, carbon monoxide. (Died with Mrs. Veres' husband.) Balit Peterman, 68, April 27, 1931, pneumonia.

John Nordai, 30, Oct. 15, 1925, acute dilatation of heart. Gabor Fejes, 58, Feb. 7, 1925, chronic pancreatitis. John Sokivon, 44, June 24, 1926, hanged in basement.

John Coccardi, 1925, cause unknown. Steve Falsh, 1925 or '26, alcoholism. pOLICE uncovered strange tale3 of m-en who became mysteriously ill after leaving AN ELEVEN-YEAR. OLD Hungarian girl, playing in the sand at the aide of a dingy rooming house on Medina street in Delray section, paused to watch an old man climb a ladder. Thoughtfully, she watched Steve Mak, fifty-year-old lodger In the home of Rose Veres as he slowly climbed up the extension ladder towards an attic window.

When Mak reached the window and disappeared into the attic, the girl let the sand slowly sift through her fingers, but her bright dark eyes never left the window. They still were fastened on it when Mak's body hurtled down a few minutes later. Terrified but silent, the little girl looked from the crumpled form in the dirt, back to the window. Then she quickly rose to her feet and ran home. The phrase "tye witness to murder" would have meant nothing to the little Hungarian girl.

It would not have caused ernment long has been granting "marriage loans" to encourage poor couples to wed. To encourage births, part of the loan is written off for each child born to a loan. I (FREE PREti Middle Income Group Higher Income Group. Sixty-eight per cent answered 29 per cent said "No," and 3 per cent were undecided. Highest effectiveness was apparent to the lower-income group and the 21-to-44 age classification.

71 per cent of family. At present, two motives are Male Female Yen No Und. 71 28 3 61 30 3 62 30 1 69 30 1 67 27 6 67 SO 3 70 27 1 71 25 4 63 37 0 both voting "Yes." On the other extreme, the over-45 group, with 37 per cent "No," headed this classification. Faced with the fact that in 1940 three of four persons killed in Detroit traffic were pedestrians, the Common Council authorized the City Traffic Engineering Bureau to inaugurate a pedestrian Age 45 and Up. passengers.

The Common Council In late September decided to extend the pedestrian campaign 10 months. gs.fe-3 i '4V 'A ft 'm learned Mrs. Veres wanted her to aid in murdering Steve Mak in return for the riches. When she refused, the girl said Mrs. Veres threatened to kill her if she told her mother.

Another witnefs declared ha saw Mrs. Veres place the ladder, upside down, against the side of the house shortly before Mak' ascended. It was also learned that a handy man had spent the hour previous to Mak's climb watering the clay at the side of the house where the ladder was to stand. The ladder was not placed in position until the clay had been saturated to a slippery bog. pOLICE were handicapped by the fact that the 16 roomers who had been living in the house had fled, terrified, on the day Mak was injured.

One roomer, who had left tha house two weeks before Mak's death, was located in Logan, West Virginia, and returned here. He told police he had seen Mak beaten several times by Mrs. Veres. The roomer said he asked the woman why she kept Mak, inasmuch as he paid no board. Mrs.

Veres told him, coldly, "I knew what I'm doing," he said. Asked why he left, the roomer told police Mrs. Veres wanted to take out an insurance policy in his name and when he refused, she and William Veres beat him with blackjacks. A neighbor told of seeing Mak the morning before his fall. "I'm having trouble again," the neighbor quoted Mak as saying, "She's trying to kill Mrs.

Veres, who was present at the time, told Mak: "You stop talking to neighbors or I'll slit your throat," the witness said. IpU Ji given for the steady Nazi campaign to increase the birthrate: War takes its toll among the healthiest and best men of the nation; It destroys potential fathers. The expanding Germany of today needs more sons and daughters to fill the newly-conquered territories. "We need more of our best, and only mothers will be able to supply these best," said Das Schwarze Korps, publication of Heinrich Hlmmler's S.S.S. elite troops.

It declares that every German woman should bear a war child because "greater Germany has become larger" and "in the east wide spaces are waiting to be filled with German life. "Colonies which we are wresting from British moneybags call for youthful pioneer spirit," the publication adds. VAZI authorities are keeping in anxious eye on "disturbing Influences" of war on marriage and birth figures. War, on the basis of statistics for greater Germany, brought an abrupt drop In marriages and subsequently slowed down the birthrate, which was virtually at a standstill in 1940. This was attributed to the vast disposition of troops on both the west and east lines of battle throughout the year.

Before the war, under the prodding of a steady Nazi campaign, there were early marriages and more babies. The rise was steady. In 1932 (before Hitler) there were 517,000 marriages and 971,000 births; while in 1939 there were 772.000 marriages and 1,407,000 births for the same "old Germany" areas. When analyzed, this shows that in 1932 the average number of births per 1,000 people was 14.7, but in 1939 this rose, to 20.3 per thousand. This same trend occurred In 0, THE case broke in their hands when they sifted the contents of an old trunk in the attic.

Jumbled in with a pile ol yellowed financial records kept by Mrs, Veres was a "death 75 Insurance policies naming Rose Veres as flclary and taken out on roomers in the house. Startled, Whitman noted that many of the canceled policies bore names of men who had met mysterious deaths in the Veres home. In the pile were four policies drawn upon the life of SHe Mak from which Mrs. Veres would have collected a total of Intense grilling failed to even dent the composure of the woman. Dressed in a long black dress, her jet black hair covered by a lace cap, Mrs.

Veres' pale, inscrutable eyes never wavered from the faces of her questioners. She insisted she spoke no English, and questioning was carried on with an interpreter until she was trapped talking English with her son. She told police Mak had climbed up to fix the attic window, which was in need of repair. She swore she was on the first floor of her home when Mak fell. Her son, William, 18, declared he was at a neighborhood movie at the time of the accident.

ETU RNING to the Veres' 11 home, Whitman made the discovery which resulted in the arrest of Mrs. Veres and her son for Investigation of Murder. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the attic window! Then, for 18 consecutive hours, the questioning went like this: Whitman: "Why did he go up the ladder?" Mrs. Veres: "To fix the window." Whitman: "But the window wasn't broken." Mrs. Veres: "He went up to fix it anyhow." Whitman: "Did you ask him to fix it?" Mrs.

Veres: "I asked him." Why didn't you send your son?" Mrs. Veres: William couldn't fix it." Whitman: "But it wasn't broken, so why did you have to send anyone?" Trapped in this fashion countless times, Mrs. Veres would simply refuse to hold up her end of the conversation any further. Stumped, police turned to other sources of information. Their llnding unraveled a weird collection of fact and fiction; of old-world superstitions mixed with cold knowledge.

protection campaign as a forty-ween experiment last Dec. 16. With Verne W. Tucker as coordinator, the drive to educate Detroiters on the dangers of careless walking swung into action. THE master slogan for the campaign, "Watch While You Walk," came from a chance remark about a year ago by Harry C.

Koch, associate City traffic engineer. In a conference on safety posters, Koch said "We can give them (Detroiters) volumes of education on safe walking, but it all boils down to this: If we could just get them to watch while they walk we'd have a lot of the problem licked." It was such' a good slogan that Cleveland, Boston, Baltimore and Beveral other cities now have borrowed it. Also many other signs on pavements and posters, such as November's "Be Sure the Driver Sees You Show Something White," have been used. The campaign has adopted almost every means of gaining the attention of adults in Detroit. As in the case for November, Tucker and Traffic Engineer D.

Grant Mickle have pointed out safe habits that might save lives. For November the campaign emphasizes the fact that shorter days increase the hazards of pedestrians crossing streets. The pedestrians are urged to wear something white, that will be visible to drivers, while motorists are urged to refrain from driving with inadequate lights or parking lights alone. Until late this week, the pedestrian-death ratio for 1941 had dropped to two pedestrians of every three persons killed. The total dead in traffic accidents, however, had increased to 227, compared to 199 for the same date last year.

Thus far in 1941 a total of 152 pedestrians has been killed, compared to 75 drivers and rpRAFFIC experts agree that a pedestrian pro-l tection program is not the whole answer to Detroit's terrific automobile slaughter, but they believe it is an important step in the right direction. Officials of the Traffic Safety Association of Detroit, which recommended that the campaign be continued, said: "Although there are many factors Involved in Detroit's traffic accident problem, none stands out so clearly as the disregard of safe walking practices by pedestrians. Police records for 1940 show that 121 pedestrians were killed because they themselves were at fault. Certainly these persons did not die of their own choice; most of them committed an error in judgment that, had they stopped to think, they never would have made. We believe that the posters and Blogans and other educational work aimed pedestrians is a good start." Traffic Engineer Mickle's comment was: "Safety education has proved its right to a place in the traffic picture, and our pedestrian protection program certainly has paid its way; but it can't do the whole job.

The foundation of safe traffic movement is and must always be sound engineering. Physical conditions must meet the requirements of both vehicular and pedestrian demand, and, of course, a firm enforcement policy must keep the human element under constant control if accidents are to be kept down to a decent level. When all three of these agencies are operating at their maximum, then, and then only, will the accident rate show a substantial decrease." MRS. ROSE VERES Killed men for insurance her to flee. Her flight was inspired by fear; not of Mak's death, but because it had occurred at the sinister home of Rose Veres, the "Witch of Delray." That afternoon, Aug.

23, 1931, is still vivid in her mind. Germany during the World War. There were 1,100,000 fewer babies born in 1914-1919 than in the five years previous. However, the Reich Statistical Office has reported a picking-up in marriages and birth rates for the first half of 1941. This upward trend is credited to the Nazi population policies, the Statistical Office reports said, and shows that "the vigor of the German nation hasn't been broken in any way by present conditions and later healing of the inevitable war damage is certainly to be expected." WILLIAM VERES Abo sentenced to life the rooming house against Mrs.

Veres' wishes. Then, working wearily througn a houss-to-house canvass, Detectives Whitman and Rose ran across Rose Chevala. In the trial, which began before Recorder's Judge Thomas Cotter on Sept. 30, the eleven-year-old girl's eye witness story was the climax. She said that after Mak's body had plum-metted to the ground, she looked up, and framed in the attic window, were the heads of Mrs.

Veres and William Veres. Mrs; Veres brushed cobwebs from her hair aa she gazed down, the girl testified. Mak, the girl said, did not clutch frantically as would a normal person who had stumbled. He fell inertly, she said, and she heard him moan while his body was in the air. Police contended that Mak was knocked unconscious and then thrown from the window.

The trial brought the middle ages of Old Europe, with its folklore of werewolves and "hex" women Into 20th century Detroit. Many a witness paled before the fixed expression In Mrs. Veres' tolorless eyes. Found guilty of first degree murder. Rose Veres on Oct.

14 was sentenced to life in the House of Correction and she is still there. William Veres was sent to Jackson Prison for an equal term. He is now making efforts to obtain a pardon. xKtxcmi off vm cpckdmb A CANVASS of Insurance companies who had handled the policies, revealed that several companies had refused to write any more policies for Mrs. Veres.

"We discovered a situation there we didn't liltc" company agents said. One salesman revealed that a week prior to Mak's death, Mrs. Veres tried frantically to reinstate two policies she held on Mak's life that had elapsed. Refused, she virtually demanded that a new policy for $2,000 be written, and became abusive when she was refused. Several of Mrs.

Veres' creditors told that she had approached them prior to Mak's death and said she was expecting to get some insurance money soon. The window which Mak was to "repair" was cut off from the rest of the attic by a wooden partition. A witness was found who said Mrs. Veres sawed a four-foot hole through the partition two days before Mak fell. In spite of tha pile of circumstantial evidence, police were still without either a confession or an eye witness.

The record of previous deaths was brought to light and scrutinized. They were: Steve Sebestan, 54, died Sept. 21, 1924, cerebral hemorrhage. Bcnl Kato, 48, Mar, 2, 1926, myorcarditis. A Responsibility Law HOMICIDE detectives asked Mak the routine questions when he was admitted to Receiving Hospital.

They jotted down Mak's dazed explanation, "fell from a ladder" on the records. That was all until Detective John Whitman, who now heads the Homicide Squad, noticed the address. "Now we've got a lead," he told Detective George Ross. "Maybe we've got the 'Witch' at last." Unknown to the public, the Homicide Squad kept a careful eye on Rose Veres' rooming house for years. Death was a suspiciously frequent visitor there.

Eleven men had died in seven years; but their death records told a bewildering story of "accidents" and "natural causes." Time and again, when death struck, police descended upon Delray to investigate. But never were they abb to unearth an iota of evidence that the deaths were not what they seemed. But the suspicions continued to rankle in their mind. Meanwhile, the secret was well-guarded within the shabby frame house, where the blinds Whether children are born In or out of wedlock is not considered important by Nazi officials. The To the Editor: A compulsory Mad Course To the Editor: We can very readily agree with J.

Dennis McLaughlin, when he says: "An astoundinar metamorphosis has important thing, they say, is that indemnity bond to be taken out at Seven Mile, Woodward is divided into six lanes until you reach the intersection. At this point it is divided into seven lanes, which puts you squarely In the middle of a line on north of Seven Mile, where they again switch them back the children are racially pure, when applying for a driver's license Rudolph Hess, now interned in this is the suggestion of Mr. George R. Williams, as a solu tion to the problem of payment for damage from any automobile England, and Heinrich Himmler put the official Nazi stamp of approval on illegitimacy, and it is an open secret that a number of the cloisters and monasteries con to six lanes. If anything could be more confusing than this, we would Fourteen years of experience fiscated by the Gestapo are now used to house unwed mothers.

with compulsory auto indemnity in Massachusetts show that the law TN THE Delray section, A strangely enough, police found that neighborhood tongues were loosening. The detectives attributed It to the fact that Mrs. Veres as safely in Jail. Police found a fourteen-year-old girl who charged that Mrs. Veres had asked her to come and live in the rooming house.

The girl stated that Mrs. Veres promised to buy her clothing like to have you point it out. There is always one more line of traffic than there are lanes. The centerpiece of the German yers, rather than the general public, policy in increasing marriages and have benefited from the increased litigation. Some insurance com births is the marriage loan.

First introduced in 1933, the marriage panies Tiave gone broke on such loan is designed to set up in house compulsory indemnity and others have withdrawn from that taken place in the brain of John I S. Knight." But "astounding" is not quite the word for the cockeyed Insulting alibi which Mr. knight seeks to cram down our throats. We must go on with this mad course upon which we are embarked because, says Mr. Knight: "We are pledged to defeat Hitler at any cost." Please note: "at any cost." If that coist should bo the killing, wounding, or gassing of every able-bodied American between the age of 18 and 60, to say nothing of women, children, and the aged, would It be worth it 1 Or if thnt cost should be a bankrupt nation with its army of cripples, army of mourners, and army of thieves, with the inevitable emergence of the iron-fisted dictator, would It be worth It? A thousand times no! Mr.

Knight seems to place great emphasis on certain facts which "have been before the American people far more than a year." Well then, just' who pledged us to the Also there is another pet peeve, the traffic light at Savanah and Woodward, which shut off southbound traffic even when a car comes out from the east side of Woodward and turns north. It trips the light and stop traffic going in both directions. Can you explain why a traffic light is needed at this point? As a constructive alternative, keeping young couples who normally couldn't afford it The working class principally takes advantage of these loans, which are financed by an extra income may I again suggest a drastic financial responsibility law such as the one which has proved success FALL OF THE RUSSIAN 'RUHR' ful in New Hampshire A similar tax Imposed on bachelors and spinsters. This extra tax for not being married averages about 600 marks ($240) a year. law has been adopted by New ork State to become effective Jan.

1, The Detroit Traffic Department naa the whole traffic problem in 1942. The tendency of such a law is to weed out the irresponsible and CONDITIONS for this loan are that the couple must be healthy WflM) rich rmzi ll 1 'or penetration YtfAwyZlmyy1 a bT 5 into rest of industrial diamond. AS sriggerin, to Russia is combined losses on the central and northern fronts, the abandonment of the Ukraine's heavy industries foundation of munitions and automotive production. Crouped in tha shape of the diamond shown here, they ones provided an estimated 40 per cent of the Soviets incompetent drivers rather than to reverse. It is congestion that causes accidents.

Get them home as quickly as possible and off the streets and you will have less blanket them in unaer me com and "politically unobjectionable." For elieibiuty, the annual income pulsory indemnity, thus granting them a certain amount of im of the father may not exceed 8,000 inousrnai ourpur. munity. marks congestion and fewer accidents. DALE O. MILLER To the Editor: There are en The average loan Is 600 marks defeat of Hitler at any cost? To whom was such a pledge given, The Free Press is on the right track in its campaign to revoke ($240) made in the form of certificates to buy household furnishings, tirely too many drivers who drive along with two wheels quite defi licenses of unfit drivers and to jolt the rest of us out of our com linens, cooking utensils and the like.

For each child born, the and why? Has any individual or group, any legal or moral right under our Constitution to make such a pledge? Who has decreed that, "despite the great wealth and nitely in somebody else's lane or "groove." Now in the case of an couple's debt is reduced one-fourth, eight-lane highway, if there are placency. GEORGE M. ZIMMERMAN, A Stronger Pouer Ten marks are paid out monthly manpower of the British Empire, three cars going one way and for each third and fourth child and 20 marks for each fifth and every three cars the other, each riding a line, then the highway which is To the Editor: A "Christian additional child thereafter. Uncle Sam will do much of the fighting and ALL of the paying for World War II" Why can there be no turning back on a road which leads only to inevitable de designed for four cars to pass at These marriage loans have very a timowin each direction is limited easv terms. They bear no interest Lawyer's" concept of Christianity is like democracy.

When we come to define its meaning, everyone has different ideas on the subject, when the important thing is to and are paid off at the rate of 1 per cent monthly, wnicn is a ducted from pay checks. to tnree cars, or lor a given car length it is reduced from eight to six, or a reduction in the efficiency of that highway of 25 per cent; and you cannot reduce the struction? "13. MILLER, Riding the Lanes know the facts. German statisticians argue that couples subsidized by the state those receiving marriage loans have "greater will" to raise big efficiency of any public medium To the Editor: We got a great fcirlr nut of the article in the Free such as a highway without causing families than mose noi so aiaea Press about holding up the traffic accident. THE HAMILTONIAN CONSERVATIVE conditions in Chicago, ana rercr-rine to drivers In Detroit as The latest available figures given by Fritz Reinhardt, secretary in the Ministry of Finance, show that iVcduikl "straddlimr" the vellow line.

from January, 1934, to June, 1937, Better Betting It so happens that the Police the state-subsidized couples pro Department trained us tnai way Going north on Woodward Ave duced twice as many children as other marriages concluded in tne same neriod. Reinhardt said 1,100.000 families He has separated the Individual from the state, forbidding him as a Christian to do the thing he claims the state has the right to tell him to do in self-defense. But he doesn't explain how we are to know if the state Is right. Christ defended righteousness to the extent of giving himself, he never lifted his hand to harm anyone. There is a power stronger than nations and that is where the true Christian must align himself.

STELLA ANN McKISSEN To the Editor: "Christian Lawyer" says "Thou shale not kill" applies to individuals, not nations. I cannot find where such an exception is mentioned in Holy Writ, and what is a nation but a number of individuals? If all of the laws are for individual and none for nations, then the king, as symbolical of a nation, can do no evil, which history proves is pure bunk. If "Overcome evil with good" had benefited from this plan since October. 1935, and that at the pres ent time aid is being granted to 2.500,000 families with 5,000,000 children. To carry out these meas urea, Reinhardt said, the Reich so far has expended over three billion To the Editor: I read Jersey Jim's letter and wish we had more men like him who would take time to" write.

If we had legal betting, I'm sure the State would benefit greatly instead of spending so much money stamping out graft. All the bookmakers want legal betting. Wrho is holding it up? BROWN MARE. To the Editor: After reading "Jersey Jim's" letter and knowing so many people who feel as he does, I'd like to back up his suggestion. Why can't we have legalized handbooks? Nine persons out of 10 gamble and will gamble no matter where they have to go to do it.

The newspapers are allowed to give "tips" on racing, entries and results, and I'd like to know for whom If not for the people? MISS H. BAXTER. marks. Under the Nazi system of en couraging big families by granting special privileges antt financial assistance, the i i control movement, as such, naturally finds no footing. It's as taboo to means that "good be preserved else the Nazis as democracy.

When Peter Pain dubs you with Rheumatic Misery, Rub in Read why Ben-Cay gives you such amazingly fast relief Thara tr two long-tested, tried and tnj pain-reliavinf agents your doctor knows about salicylate and menthol. Well, by actual impartial laboratory test, Ben-Gay contains up to 2 Ki times mora of theto ingredients than i other widely offered rub-ins. evil will prevail, how is good going to be "preserved" unless all men realize that by returning good for evil they "heap coals of fire" on the heads of the We 'Always Were CAUCASUS To the Editor: In reply to Mrs. A MAJOR INDUSTRIAL CITIES Wfffr APPROXIMATE AREA W' HELD BY AXIS I. C.

Miller, I agree with "Dis gusted." I haven't had a decent coat or hat since Roosevelt took office. I don't denv we are better KK Simferopol DIRECTION OF END CP liwt? ACTS FAST i WHAT CAUSES EPILEPSY? A booWet containing fKa op'ntont of famoul doctors on thij interesting subject will ba tent FREE while they last, to arty reader writing to te Educational Division, 535 Fifth New York, N. Dept. N. 13 I suspect that "Christian Lawyer" also Interprets "avenge not" as an individual law from which nations are quite conveniently exempt, but none of these great laws are so worded as to Indicate that thpy apply only to individual conduct.

CHARLES A. BEACH MAIN AXIS THRUSTS Sevastopol MAIN AXIS THRUSTS Last pal of Naiis in southern Russia may be Caucauc W4i VCU HURT off than the people in the Old World, but so were we always even under th" adersltip of th "do nothing" Hoover Administration. DOUBLY DISGUSTED. MILES UlULK OtU could serve as springboard for thrust -'A Mid-East, India. tfheri Btn-Cty MILD for chMnn.

THE pHTROlT FREE PRESS SUNDAY, 2. 10U.