Extracted from The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA)
NEW ORLEANS POLICE, TANGIPAHOA POSSES SEARCH FOR BRIDGES
Southern Louisiana Combed for Ex-Convict in Fatal Stabbing of Woman, 35, on Ponchatoula Street
VICTIM'S BODY BEARS TWO DOZEN WOUNDS
Waitress, Told She Faces Death, Gives Ring To Son, Sends Sister Pin, Names Assailant, Then Expires
A police net extending throughout Southern Louisiana, with New Orleans a major point of vigilance, was spread late Thursday for Kinchen Bridges, Kentwood ex-convict, wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing early in the day on a Ponchatoula street of a 35-year-old waitress, Mrs. Viola Caraway.
While posses, driven by the order ``shoot to kill on any false movement,'' scoured Tangipahoa parish in search of the alleged fugitive, New Orleans police were urged to lend their forces toward the apprehension of Bridges, who is 30 years old.
Bridges is described as being 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 160 pounds.
Mrs. Caraway was found on a main street in Ponchatoula early Thursday morning bleeding profusely from more than two dozen knife wounds in her back, arms, side and neck.
Taken to the office of a physician in Hammond, she died there at 5:50 a.m. Before she lost consciousness, shortly after 4 a.m., she named Bridges as her assailant, according to Tangipahoa parish authorities.
Town Marshal Octave Anglade of Ponchatoula said the woman added that Bridges previously had threatened to kill her.
Employes at the hotel restaurant where Mrs. Caraway had been working three weeks said that she apparently had anticipated an attack, for she put an icepick in her handbag before leaving the place late Wednesday night.
They quoted the stabbing victim as saying:
``I think I'd better take an icepick and have it ready. Kinchen has been threatening to hurt me.''
According to reports gathered by Ponchatoula authorities, Mrs. Caraway left the restaurant about 11:45 p.m. and started walking toward the home of her sister, Mrs. Joseph Brown, five blocks away. She was joined immediately by a man who had been waiting for her across the street from the hotel.
As the couple continued on the way to Mrs. Brown's home they left the sidewalk, near where workmen were mixing concrete, and walked along the street.
The workmen reported that they heard the woman and man quarreling in loud tones even above the noise of the concrete mixer. Suddenly, the woman's screams brought an end to the quarreling. In the street, less that 400 feet from where the workmen were mixing the concrete, Mrs. Caraway was found wounded.
A pool of blood marked the scene of the cutting, and blood stained the street for about 100 feet to a telephone pole at which the victim fell to the pavement. There M. F. Tucker, first to reach her side, found her. Tucker called police, who learned afterwards that the woman had been slashed 14 times, one of the wounds penetrating to the left lung.
Bridges was sentenced June 29, 1932, to serve 12 to 20 years in the state penitentiary for the slaying of Elmer Dunnington, ex-convict, in a three-cornered gun battle in Hammond during an argument over an election.
Dunningham, it was testified at Bridge's trial, shot and fatally wounded Milton ``Red'' Bates, uncle of Bridge, before the latter opened fire on Dunnington. Bridges was released from the penitentiary September 13, 1934, on commutation to time served.
Since his release from Angola, Bridges is said to have been friendly with Mrs. Caraway, who had been separated from her husband, Griffin Caraway, for about four years. Police said that Mr. Caraway lives in Denham Springs.
Advised shortly before she lapsed inton unconsiousness that her chances for recovery were meager, Mrs. Caraway gave her ring to her 15-year-old son, Donald, who has been living with his father and who had been called to his mother's side, admonishing him to be diligent and attentive in school.
She also removed a pin she was wearing and asked that it be delivered to her sister, Mrs. Brown.
Besides her husband, son and Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Caraway is survived by three other sisters, Mrs. Delphine Mickel, Mrs. A. C. Brumfield and Mrs. Nora Cutrer; a brother, Thurmon Cutrer, and a half-brother, Malcolm Holmes.
Funeral services will be held this morning at Lee's Landing, Eighth Ward of Tangipahoa parish, with interment in the Collins cemetery.
Friday, June 19, 1936