On August 4, Donna B., age 27, and her husband Stanley L. Barton, had dinner at the Embers Night Club in Indianapolis and took in the show after having had the evening meal and several drinks.
At about 11:00 p.m. they left to go home in their car. While proceeding home by way of Massachusetts Avenue, Mrs. Barton and her husband got into a “silly” argument purportedly over the manner in which Mr. Barton was driving the car. Because of this argument, she got out of the car along Massachusetts Avenue and proceeded to walk home while Mr. Barton followed alongside, trying to talk her into getting back into the car. After several unsuccessful attempts to get her to return to the car, and because he was blocking traffic behind him on Massachusetts Avenue, Mr. Barton decided to proceed home leaving his wife to find her own way, presumably by taxi cab.
Mrs. Barton continued walking up Massachusetts Avenue toward her home. As she approached the vicinity of 21st Street, she heard footsteps behind her and when she turned around to see who it was, she observed two men running after her. She started to run but they grabbed her, threw her in some bushes and put something like a sweater over her face. They told her to be quiet as they waited for traffic to clear. Then those men picked her up, one holding her by the feet and the other by her arms and carried her across the railroad track into some bushes where two other men were waiting. The location was well lighted, having several overhanging street lights about twenty-five to fifty feet apart. She pretended to have fainted. She heard someone say:
“She has rings and a watch on.”
They went through her purse, and took her wedding rings and watch. Then two of the men grabbed her under the arms while the other two started to pull her girdle and panties off. After removing her underclothes one of the men started to have intercourse with her, but something alarmed them and he quit and they all crouched. Then each man grabbed an arm or leg of Mrs.Barton and carried her to a parked car where they put her in the trunk of the car. One of the four men also got into the trunk with her.
The car drove a very short distance and it stopped at an abandoned house at 1922 Arrow Street, Indianapolis.
The men took her to a very, very small room and they laid her down on a baby mattress. They raised her hem again and took the top down from her dress, and someone started to have sexual relations with her, and they said:
“I can’t have relations with her. She’s too tight.”
Then somebody else tried, and they said:
“No wonder you can’t have relations with her, she’s in her period.”
Then there was silence for a little while, a few seconds, and then they said:
“Well that doesn’t make any difference.”
Then the men went ahead. After that it was just one series of rape right after another, but one time during the evening all four of them, at one time, had their hands on her. There were more than one act of intercourse but there were times when they weren’t having intercourse with her, and during those times, all the time, she had been pretending to be in a coma or something of that nature, and during those times at least someone wasn’t having intercourse with her, they would shine a cigarette lighter up and down her body or someone would shine it very, very close to her face, and they would slap her face to see if she were feigning this condition she was in, and apparently she passed the test because someone said:
“Boy she’s really out.”
All four of the men were in the room with Mrs. Barton the majority of the time, but later in the evening three of them left leaving Danny N. alone with her. He remained with her until the sun came up, which was an hour or two after the others had left. When the other three left ,Danny N. was having sexual intercourse with her, and when the other three were leaving they said:
“Come on Danny let’s go and get out of here.”
He said:
“I’m going to stay.”
The man had sexual intercourse with Mrs. Barton twice more and after he had finished with her the last time he got an old curtain and came back and covered her with it and then he left.
At 5:30 in the morning after her attackers had departed Mrs. Barton left the house and went to a nearby residence to call her husband for help.