Michgan City, Ind, Feb 14, (AP) - Declaring that he who die with "lips sealed," James C. Coyner, giant nero convict serving a prison term for grave robbery, refused today to disclose anything concerning the four human skulls found in a Royal Oak, Michigan House, where he formerly lived.

He previously had addmitted that he had lived in the house and had left the skulls in his trunk there, but today adopted a defiant attitude when questioned by Clyde Underwood, prosecuting attorney for Oakland County, Michigan, in which Royal Oak is situated, and George W. Smith, cheif of police of Ferndale, near Royal Oak.

"I will die with my lips sealed," the convict said when interrogated in the Indiana State Prison here. "I could tell you lots of things you would like to know, but I'd die first."



Prosecutor Underwood declared that if the convict continued to refuse to talk, he would send for the trunk of skulls and confront the convict with them in the prison in an effort to break down his defiance.

The negro, although reticent regarding the Royal Oak affair, made a few statements that interested the prosecutor.

"If I wanted to," Coyner said. "I could tell you about a lot of murders and murderers. There are plenty of them walking around the streets of Detroit that you want, but I won't talk."

"I'm a defiant fellow; you won't get anything out of me. Ten years from now when I get out of prison, will be time enough to talk. But I don't want to get out of prison. There is no justice in the world. I'd rather be in the darkest Africa where I wouldn't have to be afraid of the law all the time."



Chicago, Feb 14 (AP) - Theories that James Coyner, a giant negro serving a prison sentence in Indiana for grave robbery may have been the Toledo slugger of women and also may have information about the torso of a woman found near South Bend, Indiana, were expressed today by authorities delving into the mystery of four women's skulls found in a trunk at Royal Oak, Michigan.

Coyner, who will be questioned by officials from Oakland County, Michigan has acknowledged that the trunk belonged to him, but he denied he knew bything of the skulls. In letters smuggled from prison to his sister in Chicago, however, Coyner repeatedly urged her to get his trunk, and alluded to "something alse" than his grave robbing conviction, which if discovered he said, would make him "through for ever."

Clyde Underwood, prosecuting attorney of Oakland County and Chief of Police George W. Smith, of Ferndale, Mich., which like Royal Oak, is a suburb of Detroit, came here today to question the sister, after which they planned to go to Michgan City, where Coyner is in prison. He was convicted of robbing a grave at Hammond, Ind.

chicago authorities also were in vestigating a theory that Coyner might have obtained the skulls, near Bernice , Ill., where he once worked. Detroit authorities intimated they would drop the case unless murder evidence was found.