Girl Drives Auto With Uncle Dead and Father Shot - Oct. 6, 1916

Girl Drives Auto With Uncle Dead and Father Shot

Daughter of "Cranberry King" Badly Wounded, Speeds from Holdup Men.

DRIVER HOLDS OFF THIEVES

Shot Seven Times, He Fires from Motor as Mrs. Smathers Guides Car

HAD $4,000 FOR PAYROLL

Italians Waylaid Rider Party on Lonely Road in Jersey as They Went to Pay Workmen

Special to the New York Times

HAMMONTON, N.J., Oct 5 - Facing a fusillade of pistol bullets, three of which struck her, Mrs. Elsie R. Smathers, daughter of A.D. Rider of this place, drove her automobile today through a dozen highwaymen who attempted to hold up the car in a lonely stretch of road. The plucky woman's uncle, Henry D. Rider, of Howell, Mich., was killed in the seat beside her, and her father was shwo teice in the face before the speeding car carried them out of range. The most seriously injured member of the party was the chauffeur, J.M. Ridgely, who was wounded seven times as he stood erect on the back seat and returned the fire of the robbers.

Evidence obtained by the police goes to show that the hold-up had been carefully planned. The robbers are believed to be Italians employed in the cranberry bogs in this vicinity, who knew that the Rider party was carrying $4,000 to meet the semi-monthly payroll of 300 cranberry pickers. Mrs. Smather's quick action in accelerating the motor when the gang ordered her to halt saved the money. Word of the tragedy was telegraphed to detectives in Philadelphia and Camden, and men were posted at all ferry and railroad terminals in an effort to catch the criminals.

Held Up the "Cranberry King"

A.D. Rider is President of the New Jersey Cranberry Growers Association, and because of his great holdings in bogs hereabouts he is known as the Cranberry King. Throughout the picking season it has been his havit to take the wages of his workers to them personally, usually accompanied only by his chauffeur. This afternoon Mr. Rider decided to give his visiting brother a view of the cranberry property and invited him to go along, together with Mrs. Smathers.

Mrs. Smathers drove the car from the bank into the open country. Near a small hamlet called Atsion, where the road is narrow and closely edged by scrubby trees, the highwaymen jumped in front of the motor, masked, and waving revolvers.

Mrs. Smathers did not hesitate, but put on speed and dashed through. A shot at close range passed through Henry D. Rider's head, killing him instantly. Another pierced Mrs. Smathers back as she leaned over the steering wheel. Two others struck her father's jaw, and another entered her right leg. The first bullet to strike Mrs. Smathgers, is was found afterward, passed nearly through her body, but the shock failed to cause her hands to relax from the wheel.

For a hundred yards the speeding car was under fire, the chauffeur returning the shots as well as he could in the swaying automobile until his legs were literally shot from under him. Then the engine stalled. Mrs. Smathers was struck by the third bullet, it is thought as she leaned forward to manipulate the self-starter, but she set the car in motion and dashed on toward Atsion.

She stopped at the general store in the village, which is owned by a friend, A. Etheridge, and asked Miss Teresa Etheridge to telephone to the Sheriff at Mount Holly. It was here that she learned for the first time that her uncle was dead. Still possessed of sufficient nerve and strength to start and drive the automobile, Mrs. Smathers climbed back into the seat, and did not relinquish it until the party had been driven to the Hammonton Hospital. Her condition tonight was reported as serious, but the physicians in attendance said she had a fair chance of recovery.

Posses Seek Highwaymen

The highwaymen scattered, and tonight the woods and bogs were being scoured by posses from Mount Holly and Burlington, nearby towns. An organized pursuit was started by County Detective Ellis Parker and Prosecutor Jonathan H. Kelsey of Burlington, who heard of the holdup at the Mount Holly fair grounds shortly after it occurred. Only a meager description of the robbers could be given by Mrs. Smathers. She caught only a glimpse of the men as the motor sped by them.

Giuseppi Russo and Mille De Marco were arrested in the Italian district of Philadelphia late tonight in connection with the hold-up. Frank Vessera and Frank Ladona are being held as material witnesses.

Vessera, according to the police, confessed that he was engaged by Russo and the woman to convey them and two other men to Zion, N.J. near where the shooting occurred. Ladona accompanied him in an automobile. The party reached Zion around noon and the four passengers left the car. Shortly afterward Vessera and Ladonna (sic) say they heard shots, and that their passengers returned accompanied by three men who they took in the machine and ordered Vessera to drive toward Trenton.

The De Marco woman, according to the police, formerly was employed by Riden.

Prosecutor Kelsey said tonight that he was convinced the highwaymen were members of a gang in Cumberland County which has been holding up automobiles and robbing them. It was evident, he asserted, that they had knowledge of Mr. Rider's habit of drawing money from the bank every two weeks to pay his workmen, and that they timed the attack skillfully.

A.J. Rider, the father of Mrs. Smathers, is widely known in the State. Before engaging in the raising of cranberries he was head of the Rider-Moore Business College in Trenton. He is President of the Hammonton Telephone Company and interested in numerous local enterprises. He is about 70 years old.

Mrs. Smathers is 26 years old and a widow of only three weeks. Her husband, Robert Smathers, was the son of Judge Frank Smathers of Atlantic City.

Published in the NY Times, October 6, 1916