Dartmouth Death Case Gets Grand Jury Hearing May 18

HANOVER, N. II. March 21--All six Dartmouth undergraduates identified by police as involved in the fatal beating of Raymond J. Cirrotta Friday received indefinite suspensions from college tonight, pending the findings of the Grafton County grand jury, which is scheduled to hold its first hearing May 18.

Thomas A. Doxsee, released Saturday morning on $2000 bail on a charge of first degree manslaughter, pleaded innocent today and will appear for arraignment at 2 p.m. tomorrow in the municipal courthouse.

Being held as material witnesses are: George G. Schreck, William C. Felton, Robert A. Fox, Charles T. McCarthy, and Glen B. Peck, Cirrotta was a senior, Fox is a sophomore, and all the rest are juniors.

Faculty Committee Issues Statement

An official college release last night stated: "The Faculty Committee on Administration at its regular weekly meeting this afternoon voted in accordance with the unanimous recommendation of the Judiciary Committee of the Undergraduate Council to suspend indefinitely the students identified by County Solicitor Robert A. Jones as having been the members of the group present at the incident leading to the death of Raymond J. Cirrotta '49.

"This action by the Faculty Committee confirms the temporary action taken by the Dean of the College (Lloyd K. Neidlinger) immediately following Cirrotta's death Saturday morning."

Charles F. Tesreau, attorney for Doxsee, recounted the sequence of events leading to Cirrotta's death as he had learned it from the six men. He admitted that none of them could remember exact times or exactly who had done what.

"There was an ordinary college party going on in the Delta, Kappa Epsilon House," Tesreau said, "and there's no doubt at all that there was drinking going on. Between 8 and 12 of the Dekes, (including all six men suspended last night) left their own party sometime between 9 and 10 p.m. and continued their drinking at the Tri-Kappa House.

The Six Wander

"At some point Cirrotta's name came up--no one remembers exactly when or in what connection--and in the course of its wandering through the college, the group went up to Cirrotta's room on the second floor of Massachusetts Hall. They were undoubtedly drunk by this time--between 10 and 10:30 p.m.

"They entered his study with the intent of messing up the furniture, found nobody around, and proceeded to turn over some chairs and throw some books around the room.

"At this point Cirrotta either woke up or was awakened and came out of his bedroom into the study, dressed in his shorts and a green sweater with a small 'D.' Some of the boys began to get sore at him because he was wearing a letter which he had not earned."

(Cirrotta was an outstanding athlete at Peekskill Academy, where he was on the football, basketball, and tennis teams for three years and captained all three squads in his senior year. He played left halfback on the freshman team his first year at Dartmouth. When he returned from the Army he did not continue his athletic career.)

"Doxsee struck Cirrotta in the stomach. He took a step back and sat down on a divan," Tesreau said. "A couple of the guys began to tug at his sweater as if to rip it off him. He got up and apparently ordered the fellows to get out of his room.

"The scuffle for his sweater continued and he either fell or was pushed backwards through the doorway into his bedroom, where he struck his head on the corner of a desk-table.

"Robert D. Kilmarx heard the noises and came out of his room across the hall. He told the men to get out, and they did, not knowing that Cirrotta might have been severely injured. Kilmarx spoke to Cirrotta, who was washing his face, and returned to his room to study.

"About midnight Cirrotta's roommate, Richard A. Wolff, came back from the library and found Cirrotta on his bed complaining that he couldn't sleep. He asked Wolff for a couple of sleeping pills.

"Wolff, however," Tesreau said, "decided to call Theodore Gaudreau, captain of the campus police. Gaudreau ordered Cirrotta removed to the infirmary from which he was later taken to Mary Hitchcock Hospital, where he died at about 4 a.m. Saturday during an emergency operation on his head.

Tesreau's account of the struggle tallied with medical referee Dr. William C. Putnam's report that death was caused by a hemorrhage on the outside of Cirrotta's brain and that there were only two outward marks of injury: a small cut in the left corner of his mouth and a bruise on his left temple.

Rumors about the origins of the fatal scuffle were still circulating here late tonight. If, as some claim, the incident started as a student prank, the question remains: why did the men involved single out Cirrotta?

In addition to claims that Cirrotta's personality was not pleasing and that he were a sports letter he didn't deserve acquaintances offered as a reason for his unpopularity his "leftist leanings," including support of Henry A. Wallace for President and singing of "labor songs."

Funeral services will be held tomorrow morning in Linden, N. J., Cirrotta's hometown. His roommates, Wolff and Morris W. Weintraub, will represent the student body and his fraternity, Phi Sigma Kappa. Dean Neidlinger will represent the college