Sluggish

In a Manhattan restaurant one morning last week three people sat breakfasting on highballs. They were Rev. Joseph J. Leonard, 40, a Roman Catholic priest; Joseph Lieb Steinmetz, 22, a Jew turned Presbyterian theology student; and Mrs. Steinmetz, 17, a minor showgirl whom he had married a fortnight before. The three had met casually the night before. From the restaurant they returned to the Knights of Columbus Club Hotel and the Steinmetz room where another bottle of whiskey was consumed. When Steinmetz began feeling groggy, Father Leonard suggested he lie down. He heard the priest say to his wife: "Let's go down to my room." The two went and Steinmetz followed. There the young husband beheld his wife and the priest half-undressed. Crying, "I don't like the looks of things," he whipped out a pistol, shot the pair dead. Next day Joseph Steinmetz was indicted for murder.

For hours the Catholic-run hotel succeeded in hushing news of this crime. When the police finally let it out, reporters hotfooted to the chancery of St. Mary's Cathedral at Trenton, N. J., the diocese to which Father Leonard had been attached. A bombardment of press questions followed. The chancery, rigorously schooled in the use of language, was soon ready with its vindication: ''Father Leonard had an attack of influenza in the epidemic of 1918 and 1919. . . . He was mentally sluggish."

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