Reporters helped solve
crime by spotting owner
of blue Dodge

The recollections of Keith Davis, who started at The Journal in 1924, included the paper�s reporting of the 1928 kidnap-slaying of a young girl, a huge story at the time. A report of Davis� account follows, from The Journal�s 1976 Centennial issue. 

In Mt. Morris, 5-year-old Dorothy Schneider, a �flaxen-haired little girl,� was on her way home from kindergarten when her abductor waylaid her. Later, after her mutilated body was discovered in Benson Creek west of Mt. Morris, a farmer in the area told of helping a man get his car out of the mud.

Keith Davis

No only did he provide a description of the man, but a clue: The car was a 1926 Dodge, painted robin�s-egg blue.

An extra headlined �Hunt Maniac Slayer of Child� told of a wide search for the driver of such a car. The next day, Jan. 14, rewards were announced.

In The Journal office, staff members pored over state automobile registrations, looking for a local owner. Someone found a listing for a man in Owosso.

Deputies sent to question him looked at his car. It was painted black. One deputy said later that, knowing the man was a family man and a church elder, he felt embarrassed to be even questioning him. As he turned away from the car door, he happened to brush it with his ring, a large signet.

To his astonishment, a scratch of the surface revealed underneath the telltale blue. The criminal confessed and, because the sheriff knew how high feeling was running in the community, they took him to a jail in Lennon.

Davis remembers the tension of typing the story at the man�s capture. It was torn from his typewriter �a paragraph at a time,� he said to put into an extra.

That afternoon, when factory workers ended their shift, they formed a mob estimated at more than 6,000 and marched on the county jail. They had one thing in mind: Get the killer and lynch him.

Deputies threw tear gas out of windows at the crowd, but individuals picked up the bombs and fired them back.

By this time, Flint Mayor William H. McKeighan was on the scene.

�Whatever you thought about him,� said Davis, �McKeighan had courage. He walked right into the midst of that mob. �Boys,� he said, �you know me. Most of you voted for me.� �

He offered to take a few of them into the jail to see for themselves that the prisoner was not there and encouraged the mob to disperse.

With the arrival of �the entire city staff of The Detroit News� at The Journal headquarters, Davis said, �we had the chance to see a big city staff in action.�

After the kidnapper was tried and convicted, he was hurried to Marquette State Prison to begin his life term. On Jan. 21, the final front-page reference to the case said that it would certainly bring on a fight for capital punishment in the state.