Miller - Leland Paul - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Fingerprint from dismembered hands led State Police last night to identification of the murder victim whose charred body was found yesterday in the smoking ruins of a Montgomery County log cabin.  The body is that of Leland Paul Miller, 24 years old, 1230 North Alton Street, who figured is an assault shooting 11 months ago.  Capt Robert A. O’Neal chief of state police detectives said the identification was made by Jack Redmond and Hubert Rousch, department fingerprint experts.

The experts compared prints taken from the dismembered hands which Howard Troth, 26-year-old farmer, found in a bonfire beneath a bridge on Raccoon Creek, four miles southwest of Advance yesterday morning.  Running their files, Redmond and Rousch turned up a record of Miller made at the time he figured in the shooting of Howard Pollard, 23 years old, 218 S. Arsenal Avenue May 27, 1945. Capt. O’Neal said that Miller was arrested then for shooting Pollard in the neck with a .23-caliber rifle and striking another companion, Harold Tanner on the head with the weapon. The captain said Miller told authorities he shot Pollard for attempting an assault on Miss Ruth Dees, 310 North Delaware Street. He fled after the shooting. Pollard recovered from the neck wound.

Speculation was that the hands and a foot found 10 mies from the farm cabin near Ladoga where Miller’s body was discovered indicated the slayers were trying to obliterate the youth’s fingerprints and to destroy his cripled left foot which might help identify the body. The hands and foot, wrapped in an Army blanket, were discovered by Troth after he saw two men flee from the vicinity of a brush fire. The men, he said, left in a black sedan.

Discovery of the body was made at 3 o’clock after dismembered parts were found at 10 o’clock in the morning. Capt. O’Neal said that the fire which destroyed the deserted farm cabin and Millers body occurred about 45 inutes before the two men were seen by Troth.  Miller’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Miller, said their son had left home sometime between 11 o’clock Wednesday morning and 5 oclock that afternoon. They said he had been ailing and that a recent medical examination revealed he was suffering from a heart condition besides the arthritis which he suffered chronically, crippling his foot, according to State Police.

Detectives Herman Freed and Paul Rule of the Lafayette State Police Post, who were assigned to the hands-and-foot murder, ifnromed the parents last night of the identification of their son. They said the parents were grief stricken.

First discovery of the hands led Sheriff Frank McCormick of Boone County who investigated Troths report of the grim discovery on Raccoon Creek to believe the hands were those of a woman. And his opinion was maintained by State Police technicians after the hands were brought to the headquarters laboratory here.

Technicians carefully cleansed the hans and made fingerprints which were sufficient to give positive identification, Capt. O’Neal said.  With the identification made, Capt. O’Neal and his staff immediately began seeking for a clew (sic) to the identity of the slayers.

Miller who was born Aug 31, 1921, attended School 67 and attended George Washington HS two years. He was employed by an automobile firm here as a drive, his parents tol Detectives Freed and Rule.  

The youth was first arrested May 10, 1938on a vehicle taking charge. He again was entered on State Police records at the time of the shooting last year. Surviving besides the parents are a brother, Roman Miller, 15 and two married sisters, Mrs. Ruth Herring of the Alton Street address and Mrs. Jean Farmer of 270 North Addison Street.

The Raccoon Creek discovery which began the grim story of Miller’s death occurred as Troth, discharge Army veteran was plowing a field on his farm near Advance in Boone County. Troth said that smoke coming from the bridge nearby attracted his attention and that as he approached to investigate he saw the two men, who sped away in the sedan.  He was able to give only a scant description of the men.  After the discovery of the charred body in the adjoining county, State Police brought the skull from the abin ashes to the headquarters laboratory, together with the hands and foot.

Among leads being followed up was the report by the driver of a Municipal Dog Poiund truck in Indianapolis that an automobile answering Troth’s meager description sped past him and outdistanced him when he pursued it. The vehicle bore six numerals, the truck driver said.  State troopers said the hands and foot appeared to have been chopped off with an ax.  The skull appeared cracked and was separated enough from the torso to lead police to speculate on the possibility that the victim might have been bludgeoned and decapitated.

There were no remains of wire or cord to indicate that the victim had been trussed. Whether the blanket around the torso had been soaked with an inflammable liquid remained an unsettled question.  

Neighbors said the lane leading to the cabin had been used as a trysting place, but Major Walter Eckert of the state police said this angle was not being given serious consideration.

He said he believed that the persons involved were familiar with the sections of the counties where the body parts were discovered.

Tire marks of curious specspectators made nearly impossibl the identification of tracks made by the automobile which carried the victim to death.  

Fire Chief Harry Widdop of Ladoga made a run to the cabin fire and sought to extinguish it with chemicals but it had gained too much headway. He said the place was unoccupied. The fire alarm was turned in to Mrs. Nell Jacoby, telephone operator at Ladoga at 9 a.m. by Mrs. Paul Stoner, farm wife, whose attention was called to the blaze by Jesse Spencer and James Everman, who were digging a ditch in a field near the cabin.

Mrs. James Chaffin, whose husband owns the 120-acre farm on which the cabin stood, first discovered the charred body at 3 p.m. w hile she and her husband were overlooking the ruins. They said they were shopping in Ladoga when they learned the cabin was afire.

She told Sheriff McCormick she would not have noticed the presence of a body had there not been the human skull.  On closer examination she asid it appeared to her that the torso had been wrapped in an Army blanket.  Mr. Chaffin said the cabin was about 75 years old and doubtless the oldest structure in Clark Township.  Since 1932 the cabin had been abandoned as living quarters and used for corn storage.  It had been empty about two weeks, however, Chaffin said.  TJ Patton of Ladoga, deputy state fire marshal, was at the cabin fire scence but said investigation to discover the cause would have to wait until the ruins cooled.

First to reach the ruins of the cabin were State Troopers James Gilliland and Robert C. Morgan of the West Lafayette post. The latter suffered a foot injury when he stepped on a rusty nail while probing through the ruins and was taken to Crawfordsville for treatment.  Capt. O’Neal assigned Detectives Ernest Richardson, Rule and Freed, all of the West Lafayette post to the case.  Dr. ZT Ball, Montgomery County coroner said he did not know whether an autopsy would provide any more definite information.