PAIR KILLED BY GAS OF AUTO IN GARAGE

The New York Times
December 31, 1922

Trenton Dry Agent and Woman Tried in Vain to Escape Deadly Fumes.

LEFT THE ENGINE RUNNING

Bodies Discovered by Occupant of Adjoining Stall, Who Heard Motor.

Special to The New York Times.

TRENTON, N. J., Dec. 30.—Carbon monoxide poisoning today caused the deaths of Walter A. Neely, a Federal prohibition enforcement agent, and Mrs. Annabelle Gleason in a garage. When their bodies were found the engine of Neely's automobile was still running and the stall was filled with the deadly fumes.

There was evidence that the man and the woman had made frantic efforts to escape after realizing that they were being overcome. Neely, whose body was found crumpled up in a corner of the garage, had torn off his collar and ripped open the neckband of his shirt in an endeavor to breathe. The woman was in the machine—a small, closed model—her body partly on the seat and partly on the floor. She had tried to unloosen her coat, and one foot was caught in a wire under the dashboard.

Neely, whose wife died about a year ago, shortly after the birth of an infant, and Mrs. Gleason, who had been separated from her husband for several years, left the woman's home early last evening to visit Neely's young daughter in a nearby town. It is not known at what time they reached the garage, but both had been dead some time when Willard M. Hammond, going to an adjoining stall for his car, heard the motor and investigated. Mrs. Gleason's husband is said to be living in Philadelphia. Three daughters survive her, the youngest being 12 and the eldest 19. She was 36 years old.

Neely joined the prohibition enforcement squad in January of this year. He served with a machine gun battalion in the World War and was wounded twice in the Argonne battle.