Document qakngEL6m8v3YbOZO0dozNjqx

COPY 4 i , ETHYL GASOLINE CORPORATION 7 7 612 Subway Terminal Bldg. ; S Los Angeles, California . ......... May 14, 1952 Mr. E. W. 7/ebb, Ethyl Gasoline Corporation, 155 E. 42nd S treet, New York, N.Y. - v ' ' Dear Mr. Webb: . Regarding the a r tic le which appeared in the Los Angeles Times on May 8 , 1952 r e la tiv e to the death of Lt. I have the following to report. To the best of our knowledge th is a r tic le appeared only in the Sunday , edition s of the San Diego Union, Los Angeles Times and the S eattle Post In tellig e n c er . On my arrival in San Diego I called on Dr. Sumerlin at the Reese Stealy C lin ic, 0 001 Fourth Avenue, San Diego. Dr. Sumerlin served ten years in the Navy and ' resigned two years ago to take up private practice in San Diego. This c lin ic also renders medical service to the Standard O il Company of C alifornia in San Diego. On Tuesday evening there was a meeting of a few of the doctors of San Diego and the Naval Hospital and fortunately the case of L i e u t e n a n t ^ | ^ ^ a s discussed. Dr. Sumerlin has promised to send a f u l l report to Dr. Kehoe. Dr. Sumerlin reported the follow ing fa c ts to me on the case. Lieutenant H H H H k had been retired from the Navy two years ago due to poor health, having a blood pressure of 220. On Thursday afternoon he syphoned some Ethyl Gasoline from the tank of his car and which ir r ita te d h is throat and inducin^seyere coughing. A lo c a l doctor v;as called and due to the length of time which^^HHflkkaad been coughing h is stomach muscle s were sore. This caused t he lo c a l physiffirai^u^fump at the conclusion that L t. ^H ^H H ^had lead c o lic . Mr was sent to the Naval Hospital on Friday and died on Saturday, May 7, 1952. The cause "of h is death was given as hypertension and ruptured aorta by the naval doctors and th is information i s on the death c e r tific a te on f i l e in the Public Health Department, San Diego, C aliforn ia. Lhen a case i s admitted to the Naval Hospital which has been attended by a c iv ilia n physician the case record i s carried In the Naval Hospital Records as re ported by the attending physician u n tilth e Navy Hospital doctors have made a diagnosis. Evidently the original case record was never changed to agree with the death c e r tific a te . On Tuesday afternoon I called at the San Diego Union and met Mr. McMullen, reporter for the San Diego Union, and Mr. Waren, Associated Press reporter, who responsible for the story. Mr. McMullen heard of the case and understood that died of lead poisoning due to syphoning of Ethyl Gasoline from the tank of his He called the Naval Hospital Saturday afternoon and the O fficer of the Day reported that th is was tru e, probably gettin g his Information from the origin al case record. Mr. 7,'aren picked up the story from Mr. McMullen and put i t on the Associated Press wire and which appeared in the newspapers. ' I called at the Naval Hospital Thursday morning and interviewed Dr. Hall who performed the autopsy and who v e r ifie d , verbally, the fa c ts as reported by Dr. Sumer- - 2- - l in . Inasmuch as the Naval H ospital was reponsible for the erroneous report I asked Dr. H all to give me a written statement of the true cause of death. He stated that i t was against the regulations of the Naval Medical Department to issu e statements of th is nature and accompanied me to see Capt. Minter, Executive O fficer and Capt. v.'ebb, Commanding O fficer of the Naval H ospital. These gentlemen refused to give me a written statement unless they had authority from the Bureau o f Medicine & Surgery at Washington t> n is v I then called upon Mr. "cMullen and Mr. Waren again and.gave them the true fa c ts of the case and Mr. Waren called the Public Health Bureau of San Diego who confirmed Dr. Sumerlin*s report. Mr. McMullen issued a story which appeared in the San Diego Union, retracting the origin al a r tic le . This appeared on May 13, 1932. Mr. Wareh sent out a wire and h is a r tic le appeared in the Los Angeles Times on the same day. I am enclosing copies of both papers. Unfortunately for us the Lindbergh case broke at th is time and which, of course, pushed us farther back In the paper. I called upon the Los Angeles Times on Thursday night trying to get them to give us as much prominence for the retracting a r tic le as for the o rig in a l but a l l of the newspaper men were busy on the Lindbergh baby case and i t iras Impossible to get an interview . I called upon them again on Friday, but of course received no cooperation. I f we could get permission from the Bureau of Medicine & Surgery at Washington the Naval Authorities would give us a written statement o u tlin in g the fu ll facts of the case. Yours very tru ly , S. M. Wagner 0011043