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CONFESSED KIDNAPPER SAVED FROM DEATH AT LAST MINUTE JEFFERSON CITY Mo Nov 4 Oscar Ralph Ashworth confessed kidnapper was pulled back from the brink of eternity early today by a dramatic dash halfway across the state by three St Joseph attorneys Ashworth scheduled to die at midnight was saved when the attorneys obtained from the Missouri Supreme Court a few minutes before he was to have entered the lethal gas chamber a writ of error which automati ¬ cally stayed his execution There was no stay for Byron E King convicted slayer of a St Louis taxicab driver He entered the gas chamber at 128 a m and was pro ¬ nounced dead seven minutes later The three lawyers left St Joseph at 630 p m yesterday in their race to save Ashworth They based their plea on new evidence they said they had obtained only yesterday The move means that the case probably wont be heard by the Supreme Court until next September The writ serves as a mandatory stay until its return in the May Term of court Ashworth 37 pleaded guilty last September to charges of kidnapping a 7 yearold St Joseph girl He was sentenced and taken to the prison a few hours later
