October 20, 1913- Stella Hodge is Arrested.

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 as published in the Jamestown Evening Jornal


STELLA HODGE IS ARRESTED

Woman Involved in Andrews Murder Trial a Prisoner. 

ON EXCTORTION CHARGE

She is accused of Using the Malls To Obtain Money of E.L. Silcox of Philadelphia. Formerly a Private Detective - The Arrest Was Made At Erie Saturday Afternoon By Federal Officers. 


Erie, Oct 20 - Charged with using the United States malls to extort and defraud, Stella Hodge, notorious in connection with the case of the murder of Emill Amann in Warren, was arrested here Saturday by Postoffice Inspecter Robert Lewis. It is charged that the woman wrote a threating letter to H.L. Silcox, of Philadelphia, in which she threatened him with death unless he gave her $500.


Mrs. Hodge was arraigned before United States Commissioner Harry L. Moore and held under $5,000 bail for a hearing Tuesday afternoon. In default of the bond she was committed to jail. Mrs. Hodge expressed her willingness to waive a hearing and go directly to Philadelphia for trail. She will probably be taken away tomorrow. 


Postal authorities have been on Mrs. Hodge's trail for some time. She arrived in Erie three or four days ago and when Inspector Lewis received word to apprehend her, he found the woman at the Park View Hotel. 


The Letter Mrs. Hodge is accused of writing is: 

    "Deer Sir:

       " Your time is short unless you send $500 to lockbox 54, Philadelphia, PA, fore next ten days     you be shot.    

                "By Order of Black Hand"

The letter was mailed to Silcox in Philadelphia. 

Mrs. Hodge gained considerable notoriety through the Amann case, in which John M. Andrews was accused of the murder. Both men were residents of Warren. While Andrews was in the Warren county jail, Hampton L. Silcox, a private detective of Philadelphia, and Attorney Shawkey, of Warren, arrested the woman in Philadelphia, in connection with the crime. She made a confession, saying it was she who killed Amann. When brought to Warren and locked up, the woman repudiated the confession, declaring she had been enticed into making the statement by offers of money and ultimate freedom. 

She was released from jail and later made an appearance in Cleveland, where she made the statement that she would soon unleash her tongue and tell the name of the person who killed Emil Amann. Her secret is still her own, however. 

Andrews' acquittal of the murder of Amann in an Erie county court and the many expressions of Stella Hodge led Governor Tener to take and interest in the case and he had state police detailed to make an investigation. They are now are work on the case though it is understood Stella Hodge has been eliminated from their line of inquiry. 

Hampton G. Silcox, the detective to whom Stella Hodge sent the threatening letter, is well known in the east. He was at one time chief of the detective staff of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit company and succeeded in breaking up the notorious gang of contortionist who mulcted the company of thousands of dollars, through fake injuries. 


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