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Show Sheldon Clark Murder Trial , , May Be Concluded Tonight i Defendant Relates Story of Alleged Relations Re-lations With Solo vich Women Leave Court Room, Thoroughly Shocked. i i (Special to News) Manti, June 6 With a sorrid story of dissoluteness in Hollywood, Sheldon Shel-don Reid Clark, hammer slayer of Don Solovich, butler for Lita Grey, ex-wife of Charlie Chaplin, the com-! com-! edy king, added new sensations to i his murder trial in the seventh judic- ial court here today. ' Shortly before noon District Attorney At-torney Fred Keller, who is directing the prosecution began to cross examine exam-ine Clark. Unprintable testimony drove women wom-en from the courtroom today. Clark told the "inside story" of Solovich's purported relations with Charlie Chaplin and other prominent members mem-bers of the Hollywood movie colony. Testimony concerning the activitier of the enigmatic butler was offeree' by Clark as a background to thf events which led up to the hammer slaying in the hills near Gunnison last January. The exotic story of Solovich's career car-eer became so salacious that the defendant de-fendant declared he was embarrassed to tell it. Modulating his voice so that sometimes some-times it was merely a whisper, Clark recounted the text of conversations with Solovich on the road to Utah and described indecent advances made by the butler who claimed he was a woman in nature. Clark bared the life of degeneracy which the butler was supposed to have led for years in Hollywood where he was an intimate of leading motion picture players. "Solovich claimed his strange na-1 ture got him into the movies," de- j clared Clark. "He said Charlie Chap- j lin 'discovered' him when he was j dancing on the stage with Fritzi J Scheff, the famous actress. He told j me Chaplin double-crossed him twice ' once when he married Mildred Har-' ris and again when he married Lita Grey. He described how Chaplin begged him not to leave him and offered of-fered him a thousand dollars a momr. to stay after the comedian married Lita Grey." Clark told the jury that Solovich advised him not to have anything to do with women. "According to his ideas," the defendant de-fendant declared, "women ' were inferior in-ferior and unworthy of love and respect. re-spect. Solovich said he was superhuman. super-human. He said there was only one J person to every three million in the world like him. He often spoke of his superior aesthetic sense and was I convinced that with a few others . like him in Hollywood he moved in a higher plane than ordinary people." At noon Clark had told the entire story of his association with Solovich md had given a colorful description of the homicide which he claimed he oerpetrated in self defense. It is probable the case will go to the jury tomorrow night. Virtually all of the defense testimony has been presented. The case has been the most sensn-j sensn-j tional murder trial in the history of I Sanpete county. j Efforts of the defense to subpoena i Charlie Chaplin, Kono, his Japanese i secretary, Lloyd Wright, the comed-, comed-, ian's attorney and other Calif ornin n's mentioned in the case have failed, j Chief defense counsel, Lewis Larson, Lar-son, is depending largely on Clark's story and the testimony of the defendant's defen-dant's uncle, Clifford Voorhees, to clear the youth. Just before the noon recess District Dis-trict Attorney Keller had launched a gruelling cross examination and Clark was bginning to weaken under the strain of six hours on the witness ".land since Tuesday morning. |
