Murder of a Journalist: The True Story of the Death of Donald Ring Mellett

9. The Detective’s Day in Court

142 · murder of a journalist· 142 · 9 The Detective’s Day in Court D on Mellett’s “classic martyrdom”1 was recognized on May 2, 1927, when the Canton Daily News was awarded the Pulitzer Prize “for the most distinguished and meritorious public service rendered by any American newspaper during the year (1926).” The $500 gold medal was posthumous recognition of Mellett’s sacrifice as well as the paper’s “brave, patriotic and effective fight for purification of municipal politics, and for the ending of a vicious state of affairs brought about by collusion between criminal authorities and the criminal element, a fight which had a tragic result in the assassination of the editor of the paper.”2 Mellett’s successor as publisher, Charles e. Morris, said of the award in a press release: There is humility, because only in humility can there be real service such as that for which the life of Don Mellett was sacrificed : there is pride because a civic fight has been won against great odds, successfully only because of awakening of public consciousness without which society cannot last; and there is gratitude because of the recognition that the work for Canton is a work of the best traditions of journalism, which include, above all, honesty, independence, fearlessness and persistence, the detective’s day in court · 143 unselfishly or at personal loss, to render public service. . . . Canton now stands proudly before the world as a city which will not tolerate the evils which are eating at the heart of popular government everywhere.3 Floyd streitenberger, who had been under suspicion of being part of the Mellett murder conspiracy ever since his hasty and enthusiastic pronouncement of Louis Mazer’s innocence back in August 1926, was indicted on Friday, March 4. Mazer’s assertion that streitenberger was an active participant in the conspiracy as well as a conduit between local vice lords and the police was going to be tested in court. shortly after streitenberger had been dismissed by Chief Wise in september, he had left Canton for Akron, where he stayed with a stepdaughter until he got a job as a carpenter in a power plant in springfield, ohio. it was there authorities arrested him in March, transporting him back to Canton still in his work clothes. The oncecocky police detective was a sorry sight, depressed and disheveled. He had anticipated his arrest and probably reasoned that any attempt to flee the state would hurt his chances in court.4 streitenberger’s bare-bones defense team featured no famous orators or out-of-town legal minds. in fact, the ex-cop, who was almost broke, was defended by court-appointed counsel. Leading the defense was sixty-five-year-old James H. robertson of Canton; his assistant was Frank T. Bow, a newly minted attorney whose bright future would include twenty years in Congress representing stark County. streitenberger’s trial was set for May 9, 1927. A visiting judge would preside, since all of the local judges were assumed to be too familiar with the police. The ohio supreme Court picked Frank M. Clevenger, a common pleas court judge in Clinton County in southwest ohio.5 in his long judicial career, Judge Clevenger presided over trials across the state, reminiscent of the circuit judges of an earlier time, and his resume included presiding over a 1919 trial challenging ohio’s ratification of the eighteenth Amendment—Prohibition. Clevenger was widely respected and was very active in the state and national bar associations, yet this distinguished jurist was virtually unknown in Canton in the spring of 1927.6 All concerned agreed that 144 · murder of a journalist streitenberger’s trial would be short. His court-appointed defense was not going to waste time debating legal technicalities and planned to call only eighteen witnesses, including the defendant. even before the trial was formally called into session, on saturday, May 7, Captain Ben Clarke gave sworn testimony. Clarke, who was accidentally wounded with his own sidearm on New year’s eve, was partially paralyzed and bedridden. Mellett supporters saw something sinister in this gun accident, but in actuality it really was just a freak accident.7 unable to testify in person, his deposition was taken at his bedside. Present were Prosecutor Harter, defense attorneys robertson and Bow, and streitenberger. once the defendant’s superior, Clarke was a defense witness and was expected to bolster the detective’s alibi...