Masquerade

An automobile wreck near Gilroy. Calif., a frantic woman and a suicide revealed last week a long hidden U. S. Army masquerade. The woman was a Mrs. Gertrude McEnroe, who had come to San Francisco from Butte, Mont, to be with Lieut. William J. French, on leave from Camp Devens, Mass. Early one morning Lieut. French and Mrs. McEnroe started to motor to Los Angeles. As they approached San Jose, the officer suddenly became violent, struck his companion over the head. Then he drove into a tree. Mrs. McEnroe was picked up by a truck. Police investigating the smash-up found swarthy, curly-headed Lieut. French dead with a bullet through his brain, apparently by his own hand. Then Mrs. McEnroe, told a strange story. She said the officer was one-eighth Negro, had passed for white for 14 years in the Army, had led white troops in France. Shocked and amazed at the masquerade were his brother officers and the War Department. Not at all surprised were Lieut. French's 70-year-old mother, with whom he had spent Christmas, and many another Negro resident of San Francisco.

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