Hammond (Indiana) Times, November 9, 1936, p. 42.
CONSIDER THEORY THAT BALLARD'S KILLER WAS SLAIN
Hot Springs, Ark., Nov 9--Unwilling to accept police contention that Robert
Alexander, gambler, shot E. Ballad, multimillionaire circus owner, in a
hotel room here Friday night and then committed suicide, Coroner J. P.
Randolph was investigating a theory that Alexander may have been killed by a
third person.
When found in the hotel room, Ballard had three bullets in his body and
Alexander lay dying with two bullets in his right chest. Only one revolver
was found. It belonged to Alexander.
Alexander's associates here content that if the gambler had intended to kill
himself he would have shot himself in his head or through the heart since he
was a man familiar with the more vital spots. They hold that he would not
have taken the chance of wounding himself and suffering a lingering death.
Alexander's friends advance the theory that Ballard was accompanied to the
door of the hotel room by someone now unidentified and that the man, if not
in the room, on hearing the first shot, rushed in, grabbed Ballard's cane,
knocked the revolver from Alexander's hand, seized it, and shot the murderer
and dropped the revolver on the floor.
Ballard Rites by Jesuits
French Lick, Ind., Nov 9--In the rotunda of the West Baden Springs Hotel,
which he once owned and operated and later gave to the Jesuit order, will
lie in state today the body of Edward Ballard.
The body arrived from Hot Springs. It was removed to the West Baden Springs
Hotel early this morning where services will be held throughout the day.
Although Ballard was not a Catholic, in appreciate of his generous gift to
their order, Jesuits requested the honor of conducting rites for him.