Clues Trailed in Springfield Murder Probe

Article taken from the Lima News October 9, 1931.

Victim Identified As Old Jim. Who Had "Little House" On Ohio River

Stopped at Gas Station

Attendant Says Man, Woman, and Child were Riding in Same Auto.

SPRINGFIELD, OH -- October 8th -- (AP) -- Two stories were being investigated today by officials seeking a solution to the slaying of an aged man whose nude body was found in a cemetery near here Monday.

Pictures of the dead man were identified by Mr. and Mrs. William L. Hawkins, who live on a farm near New Carlisle, as those of a man who stopped overnight in their home last week.

The man said he had a "little house", on the outskirts of Portsmouth, and that "everybody along the Ohio River," knew him as " Old Jim," Hawkins said.  He told them he was looking for work.

Another clue was provided by Mrs. Bernard Sheerin, wife of a gasoline station operator on State Route 70, south of here, and her daughter.  Mrs. Sheerin said pictures of the slain man resembled those of a man in a car which stopped at their station Sunday morning.  A man, a woman and a small child were with him, and they said they were taking the aged man from a sickbed to a daughter's home.