Hero

Years hence, when the definitive biography of Henry Ford is written, there will be a paragraph beginning with the hour of 8:25 on the Sunday evening of March 27, 1927. At that moment he, aged 64, climbed into a Ford coupe at his factory laboratories at Dearborn, Mich., pointed the car's nose toward his home, half a mile away. Driving at his customary 25 miles per hour, even though the Chicago-Detroit highway was comparatively empty, he had nothing to vex him but a drizzling rain and a bleak landscape. Suddenly, as he crossed the Rouge River bridge, he heard the roar of a big car behind him and a Studebaker drew up alongside, smashed into him, sped on toward Detroit. Mr. Ford's Ford spun around crazily, bounced over a six-inch curb, tumbled down a 15-foot embankment, came to rest with the aid of a tree. That tree was a better stopping point than the Rouge River. Spitting blood, Mr. Ford climbed out of the wreckage, staggered a quarter mile, appeared before his gatekeeper who immediately telephoned Mrs. Ford. She rushed from the house to the gate.

In order to avoid publicity, Mr. Ford remained at home for two days before being taken to the Henry Ford Hospital at Dearborn. He had suffered a slight concussion of the brain, several deep cuts, innumerable bruises, no broken bones. He recovered gradually, painfully.

Secret Kept. Two able-bodied young workmen, who were trying out a new Ford, saw the car go over the embankment. The police were informed. The judge and the lawyers at the Sapiro-Ford trial (see p. 23), Mr. Ford's family and intimates, several doctors and employes at the hospital knew that the richest man in the U. S. was as near death as he had ever been. Yet, so well did all these people keep their secret that it was not until three days after the crash that headlines throughout the land screamed: "FORD HURT IN MURDER PLOT."

Accident or Plot? One group of spokesmen for Henry Ford announced that he regards the crash merely as an accident caused by a drunken driver or a roadhog. The other spokesmen said that Mr. Ford believes a deliberate attempt was made to kill him. The details of the crash, the secrecy in which it was kept for three days, the elaborate precautions in bringing Mr. Ford home from the hospital (two ambulances, two stretchers), the heavily increased guard about the Ford home--all tend to confirm the plot theory, which Mr. Ford is said to have dropped at the end of the week. Extensive researches by the police and by private detectives have not yet revealed either the Studebaker or its two occupants, even though it is hinted that they are known to Mr. Ford's detectives.