GIRL TESTIFIES AT ARIZONA TRIAL, TELLS OF DEATH RIDE: THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 22, 1966

The trial in the Tucson courtroom was for two other girls, but on Monday, February 21, 1966, the witness on the stand talked about the first one. Mary Rae French, nineteen, whose family had moved to Belton, Texas, told the prosecutor, William Schafer, how she had tapped on a window of Alleen Rowe's home one night in May 1964, after the girl's mother had left for work, and walked her out to a car where Charles Schmid and John Saunders were waiting. Alleen was fifteen. She came wearing a shift, her hair in curlers. The UPI story ran the next day on page 6A of The Salt Lake Tribune.

They drove to a desert wash, and all four got out. Schmid told French to go back and walked part of the way with her, and then they heard a scream, and he went back. About thirty minutes later Saunders came to the top of the arroyo and said Schmid wanted to talk to her. "We killed her," Schmid told her. Then, she said, he kissed her and said, "I love you very much." She testified that she found Alleen lying on her back with her face and head bloodied. French spoke so softly that Schafer had to ask her to speak up, and she never looked at the defendant, who chewed the tip of a ballpoint pen, crossed and uncrossed his legs, and yawned once.

The case on trial was the deaths of Gretchen and Wendy Fritz, teenage daughters of a Tucson surgeon, whose skeletons had been found in the desert months after they disappeared. The state's theory, as the paper gives it, was that the sisters were strangled with a cord from an electric guitar because they might have known what had happened to Alleen Rowe. The story concedes the gap in that: a cord found near their graves had never been traced directly to Schmid. Alleen's body had never been found, and her own case was still to come.

This is a wire summary of one morning's testimony, not a transcript, and it compresses Mary French's account. The Arizona Supreme Court's later summary of the trial evidence differs in several details: it has French telephoning Alleen until she agreed to come out, Alleen in a bathing suit, French waiting thirty to forty-five minutes, and it spells the girl's name Aileen. The cord the paper says was never traced to Schmid was later described as bearing markings like those on a cord once attached to his guitar. The jury convicted Schmid of both Fritz murders and fixed death, later reduced to life; he afterward pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Alleen Rowe. Saunders pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, and French to being an accessory.

The Salt Lake Tribune ran this story on February 22, 1966. The scan comes from Utah Digital Newspapers, held at the University of Utah's J. Willard Marriott Library, which rates the issue No Copyright - United States; the citation and that rating sit beneath the scan. The story is credited to UPI and carries no copyright line. In that issue the "(Copyright)" tags appear only on New York Times Service and other syndicated stories on other pages.

The story is L-shaped on the page. Its first column runs down beside a large advertisement while the other three sit above it, so it is shown in two crops: the headline with the tops of all four columns, then the rest of the first column. Read the first column to its end before moving to the second. Both parts were captured and transcribed in full, word for word, and nothing was illegible. The paper's own forms are kept, among them "Schmid, 23 former" without its comma and "Nov 10" without a period.

Transcription

Transcribed word for word from the page scan. Original spelling, punctuation, capitalisation and typographical errors have been kept exactly as printed. Unreadable words are marked [illegible]. Nothing has been modernised or corrected.

Girl Testifies at Arizona Trial, Tells of Death Ride

TUCSON, ARIZ. (UPI) — A Texas teen-ager described Monday how she lured 15-year-old Alleen Rowe from her home and later heard murder trial defendant Charles Schmid say, "We killed her."

Prosecutor William Schafer questioned Mary Rae French, 19, of Belton, Tex. Monday morning.

2 Slay Charges

Schmid, 23 former high school gymnastics champion, is on trial on two murder charges in the deaths of Gretchen and Wendy Fritz, teen-age daughters of a Tucson surgeon.

Their skeletons were found in the desert Nov 10, about three months after they disappeared.

Schmid is scheduled to go on trial next month on a murder charge in Miss Rowe's death. She disappeared from home on the night of May 31, 1964. Miss Rowe's body has never been found.

Electric Guitar

Schafer alleges the Fritz sisters were strangled with a cord from an electric guitar because they might have had knowledge of what happened to Miss Rowe.

It has been established that Schmid plays a guitar, but a cord found near the graves of the Fritz sisters never was traced directly to the defendant.

Miss French, whose family moved from Tucson to Texas last summer, said she tapped on a window of Miss Rowe's home after her mother had left for work.

Wearing a shift with her hair in curlers, Miss Rowe accompanied Miss French to the car containing Schmid and John Saunders, 19, a neighbor of the Rowe girl.

She said they drove to the desert wash and all four left the car, but Schmid told Miss French to return. Miss French said Schmid accompanied her part way and they heard a scream. Then Schmid went back.

'We Killed Her'

She said about 30 minutes later, Saunders came to the top of the arroyo and said Schmid wanted to talk to her.

She quoted Schmid as saying, "We killed her." Then, she said, he kissed her and said, "I love you very much."

Miss French was stony-faced and talked softly. Schafer asked her to speak louder a few times. She never looked directly at Schmid, who chewed at the tip of a ballpoint pen. He crossed and uncrossed his legs and yawned once.

Miss French testified she found Miss Rowe lying on her back with her face and head bloodied. Schafer contends Miss Rowe was hit on the head with rocks.

Notes: Kept as printed: "Alleen Rowe" (usually Alleen); "Schmid, 23 former" with no comma; "Nov 10" with no stop. "Schmid" is letter-spaced at the start of the "2 Slay Charges" paragraph. The story is L-shaped. Column 1 runs down the side of a large advertisement, and columns 2 to 4 sit above it. So it is supplied as ARTICLE-CROP.jpg (headline and the tops of all four columns) and ARTICLE-CROP-PART-2.jpg (the rest of column 1). Read all of column 1, then columns 2, 3 and 4. The trial reported is for the Fritz sisters; the article also gives the first sworn account of Alleen Rowe's murder. No words were illegible.