Stanford Thompson Goes On Trial For Bathroom Slaying

Stanford Thompson Goes On Trial For Bathroom Slaying

Thirty-five-year-old Stanford Thompson went on trial yesterday afternoon for the murder last Aug. 12 of a girl friend, Mrs. Marjorie Williams, also 35.

For three hours yesterday a 12-woman circuit court jury listened to preliminary testimony from Ann Arbor police officers who described the discovery of Mrs. Williams, fatally wounded, in the bathroom of her home at 705 N. Fourth Ave.

They told also of finding a gun, a small caliber automatic, beneath a large rock near the McDonald Dairy Co. on S. Main St., and how Thompson admitted firing a fusi-lade of bullets at Mrs. Williams as she crouched behind the bathroom door.

One Bullet Finds Mark

Only one bullet hit Mrs. Williams. It punctured a lung, Coroner Edwin C. Ganzhorn said. Mrs. Williams died as she was being admitted to St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital a few minutes after the shooting.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney John Rae this morning, prosecution witness St. Charles Bettis of 426 N. Ingalls St., told of a series of drinking parties held at Mrs. Williams' home, attended by Thompson, shortly before Mrs. Williams was murdered.

He said he "understood” Thomp-

son and Mrs. Williams had quarrelled several times and described one fight which took place during a party a few days before the murder.

Had Roomed At Her Home

Thompson had roomed at the Williams house until a few weeks before the murder, when he said he and his landlady had an argument. He then went to live at an Ann Arbor hotel.

Bettis said he had been riding with Thompson and Mrs. Williams, who apparently had made up, the night of the murder. Thompson had let him off at his home a few minutes before the shooting, Bettis added.

State police nabbed Thompson on a bus at Milan the morning after the murder.

Assistant Prosecutor John Devine said he hoped to complete the prosecution case again Thompson sometime late today.