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Omaha, Nebraska, February 15, 1926.

Lacking a motive for murder and without any circumstances to bolster the theory that the man was the victim of a stray shot,

police detectives have made little headway toward solving the mysterious death of William L.

McDevitt, 35, of 2524 Chicago Street.

McDevitt's body, a bullet hole through the head, was found lying face down on the sidewalk

about 7 o'clock Sunday night across the street from First Methodist Church. Fifteen minutes before he

had left his home to take a short walk, as was his custom, before going to work at eight o'clock at the Robert's

dairy. He was a bottle washer. The man had been shot from the back. A small caliber bullet had

penetrated his head, lodging under the skin near the right eye. McDevitt's brother Robert,

with whom he lived, said that so far as he knew,

the slain man had led an exemplary life. Quote, there was no woman, of that I would be certain.

He didn't mingle enough with people to have an enemy. He lived mostly to himself. He always

had told me he was afraid to pick up with strangers or to form friendships.

His foreman at the dairy said he didn't believe Devin had spoken six words during the six months he had worked there.

Quote, he seldom spoke to anyone.

Detectives do not believe robbery was the motive as his wallet was found in a pocket, undisturbed.

The wallet, containing a considerable sum of money and with two receipts from the Roberts Dairy,

made out to William L. McDevitt was found on the body.

Alfred Black, 10, a pupil at Central School, told detectives Hayes and Palm Tag this noon

that he had seen a man carrying a pistol running through the alley between Davenport and Chicago

across 18th about the time of the shooting.

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