Imperial Valley Press

QUIZ HUSBAND ON TRAGEDY

Mate Of Stanford University Worker Stoutly Denies He Took Life Of His Wife.

PALO ALTO, May 31. (U.P.)— A new figure entered into the Lamson death mystery today when Mrs. Uford O. Brown, wife of a Stanford journalism professor, told authorities she visited the home a few minutes after the body of Mrs. Allen Thorpe Lamson was found in a bathtub.

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 31. (U.P.)—

A new ordeal of questioning was in prospect today for the husband of the young Y. W. C. A. executive whose violent death shocked the holiday quiet of Stanford university campus where they resided.

Almost within a stone's throw of the San Juan Hill home of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Hoover, Mrs. Allene Thorpe Lampson, 28, met death while in her bath. Her head was crushed. Her husband, David, 30-year old sales manager of the Stanford University Press, who found the body, was held.

For several hours yesterday he was questioned. All he knew, he insisted, was that within the space of an hour while he was puttering in the garden, his wife was killed.

"I know she was murdered," he exclaimed, "but before God, I didn't do it."

Authorities halted the questioning to permit him a night's sleep in jail. While inclined to the theory the victim was slain, possibly by a prowler, they also investigated the possibility she may have been fatally injured in a fall. After an autopsy, medical examiners said either theory may prove correct.

Friends of the young couple whose marriage five years ago climaxed a campus romance, were convinced the wife's death was accidental. They knew of no quarrels or marital difficulties, and said they were devoted to one another and their 16-month-old child.

Mrs. Lamson was an attractive brunette. Her work kept her in collegiate circles where once she moved as a leading figure. As an executive of the university publishing house, her husband likewise occupied a position of prominence.

Their small cottage is on the fringe of the campus at the foot of San Juan Hill.

It was while he was beautifying the garden, in which both took great pride, that his wife was killed, Lamson said. He said he left her in bed after preparing her breakfast and drawing water for her bath and went outside.

Discovers Body

Lamson himself discovered the body as a woman real estate agent knocked at the front door.

Authorities held as a possible clue a stubby piece of iron pipe which they said they found in the ashes of a backyard fire. They also asserted they found Lamson's bathrobe and pajamas, spattered with blood, across the foot of his bed.

The husband said he flung them there after entering the bathroom with them in his arms to find his wife's body.