Police probing two stabbings over week end

This story was published by The Ypsilanti Daily Press on Monday, January 14, 1935.

Clarence Wise, 401 Monroe St. victim of one week end stabbing affray, was being questioned this afternoon and three other men are being sought in connection with a more serious fight which resulted in knifing of Leonard Holland, 633 N. Fourth Ave., Ann Arbor. Holland is in Beyer Hospital with a slashed throat and police have at least three versions of how the wound was inflicted.

In the case of Wise they have two conflicting stories, one that he engaged in an argument with Howard Pettis over money and the other, that the argument involved a woman. Wise was stabbed in the right arm but not seriously injured. He displayed unwillingness to sign a complaint against Pettis on the grounds that the trial would require him to absent himself from his employment.

The Holland situation is causing police more concern because of obvious efforts made to conceal the real facts. Holland was first discovered sitting in a car on Michigan Ave. bleeding freely from the wound in his neck. With him were his wife, Mrs. Evelyn Holland, Dermot Cromwell, 1119 Lincoln Ave. Ann Arbor, and Mrs. R. Bryant, 717 N. Fourth Ave, Ann Arbor.

According to Cromwell’s story, they went to the Griffen dance hall on Harriet St. to dance and later went to the George Thomas home, 440 (?) St. While they were there Holland walked into another room and when he came back his throat was cut, Cromwell asserted.

Others who were questioned were Thomas, whose left arm was gashed in the same fight, Raymond Pope, Mrs. Holland and Holland himself. Three different persons were named as Holland’s assailant by these witnesses.

Thomas claims the argument started when Holland stepped on the toes of another dancer but Mrs. Holland asserts the group was standing still near the piano player when an unprovoked attack was made. She says she tore the tie from the neck of the man who did it and the neck piece has been turned over to police.

Whether the wound was inflicted by a razor or a knife has not been determined. It reached from the back of the neck to a point under the chin and was deep. It is not expected, however, that it will prove fatal.