Valjean in Elizabethtown

Seven years ago, four masked men marched into a roadhouse near Jay. N. Y., robbed Proprietor Kin Hanna of $750 beat his father-in-law so cruelly that he became permanently deaf. One of the four robbers was killed when one of the two cars overturned. Two were given jail sentences. The fourth suspect disappeared. He was La Verne Moore of Syracuse, N. Y., famed for golf, baseball and mean practical jokes.

Two months ago. New York State police rediscovered La Verne Moore in Hollywood. Calif, using the alias of John Montague. In Hollywood, La Verne Moore's reticence about his past, his phenomenal golf and his high spirits had combined to make him a highly publicized social lion, crony of cinemactors like Bing Crosby. Oliver Hardy and Guy Kibbee (TIME. July 19). Identified by his fingerprints, La Verne Moore was extradited and brought back to the Adirondack summer resort of Elizabethtown, N. Y. for trial. First stage in the case of People of New York v. La Verne Moore took place last week.

In the Elizabethtown Court House, in 1859 John Brown's body lay in state for days before he was buried at nearby North Elba. Last week it was packed with Elizabethtown's summer visitors. Nattily dressed in Hollywood sports-spectator clothing, La Verne Moore heard New York State Supreme Court Justice O. Byron Brewster deliver a scholarly oration, then grant his application for bail ($25,000). Said Judge Brewster in part:

"Indeed, you seem to present to me in many respects a modern portrait having great likeness to that famous character painted by Victor Hugo--in sooth, you appear to be a modern Jean Valjean.

"But, different from Jean Valjean, you are returned here not to suffer from the vindictiveness of the law. Our criminal law proceeds in its enforcement from no motives of revenge, and you have been returned not for the purpose of persecution but in order that you may be prosecuted in a decent and humane manner for the crime whereof you are charged.

"It is because of these considerations, Mr. District Attorney, that I feel that the exercise of a sound discretion must turn in favor of the admission of prisoner to bail and I accordingly grant his application."

Delighted with the news that he would be free until his trial next October, La Verne Moore made a statement to reporters: "I am going home to see my mother in Syracuse. She is very ill--about to undergo a major operation. I haven't seen her in seven years. ..." From the court house, La Verne Moore went not to his mother's home but to that of Cinemactor Otto Kruger near Elizabethtown, to celebrate his freedom with cocktails and dinner. Next day, he was photographed embracing his parents on the porch of the house where they have lived for the past two months. Said La Verne Moore to reporters : "This sure looks like home."

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