DESPERATE GUNMAN WAS BADLY WOUNDED BY SOO OFFICIAL AT VALLEY CITY
Had Terrified and Robbed a Group of Transients In a Box Car
Was Weak From Loss of Blood When Captured by Deputy Sheriffs
Is Chained to Bed in Hospital Where He is Kept
By Tribune Overlanders.
Valley City, N.D., Aug 5.—In the darkness of a box car in North Valley City early Monday, a lone man covered a group of terrified transients and robbed them of their cash and jewelry.
At the identical time, Charles Davis, an employee of the Soo railroad, passed by, and hearing the noise, stopped to peer in. The gunman covered Davis instantly and moved towards him.
"It's your turn now," he cried, leveling his 45-calibre Colts at Davis.
"It's too high," objected the road employee. "Give me a lift."
Unwittingly the robber complied and as Davis extended his left hand he whipped out his revolver and fired from the hip, firing three shells, all taking effect.
The robber reeled, but recovered himself before the railroad man could climb in, and escaped through the door on the other side of the car and into the maze of the switching yards.
Davis started in pursuit but found no trace of him and hurrying to the Nestor farmhouse a quarter of a mile away, called the sheriff's office.
Deputy Sheriffs James Kelly and Fred King rushed in a car to the scene and the three commenced a search among the incoming and outgoing trains.
Later the officers discovered the outlaw on the rods of southbound passenger No. 150 which had just arrived in North Valley City from the north. The holdup man had taken a freight to Rogers, and then doubling on his trail had caught a returning passenger back to Valley City yards. He was weak from loss of blood and almost exhausted. At the local hospital where he was taken he is now chained to his bed until his complete recovery.
James Kelly, one of the deputy sheriffs searched the gunman and found a purse containing $8.20 in currency, a gold ring with emerald setting, a gold chain and a twenty-three jeweled watch. One of the bullets had struck the upper part of the watch badly smashing it and stopping the works at just six minutes of three. Inside the case were the initials, "J. L. Z." and on a card in his inside coat pocket was the following:
"If anything happens to me, notify my wife at Guthrie, Okla., her name is Mrs. J. L. Ziegel, and send my watch to my mother, Mrs. Zeigel at Walo, Texas."
Only one other means of identification was found, this was a letter written July 19th, to Joe Ziegel at Minneapolis and was signed "Annie." The address was that of his wife.
"Joe," it said in part, "we are all wondering why we don't hear from you. You wrote last time that you were going to Minneapolis and that you had a notion to ship out to North Dakota as a harvest hand. We are getting more and more in need of money, Joe. It was all I could do to pay the grocer's bill for the last two weeks. Hurry and get something to do, won't you, Joe? for we need it—need it badly now. Katy's face is becoming more pinched every day and Buddy cried himself to sleep the other night because he wanted an extra cup of milk and there wasn't any. Mrs. Hyslof gave me the address of a house where I could go and wash every Tuesday, but I don't know, I've been feeling so tired and weary of late, Joe, that I hardly know what will become of us."
Ziegel is resting easier and undoubtedly will recover. His wounds were only flesh wounds, one in the arm, one in his hand and another in his right hip, but the long exposure and the loss of blood made his condition for a time very critical.
Upon his recovery Ziegel will be lodged in the county jail to await trial at the next term of district court at Valley City.
Bismarck Tribune, 8/6/1913
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Bicycle Thief Was Caught Red Handed Monday Morning
Officer Tom Gale was called upon this morning to arrest a party by the name of True who was noticed by Ed Hollingshead riding a bicycle which had been stored in the back rooms of his place. The man was stopped and when asked where he got the wheel he stated that he had obtained it from the garage but when the garage men were advised of the statement they stated that they had never saw the party before. The man is being held and will have a hearing tomorrow. It is understood that several wheels are missing and it is thought that perhaps the work is that of an organized gang. When arrested True had a couple of bottles of Jamacia Ginger which may have accounted in a measure for his actions as it is understood that he has a family and has been considered a respectable person heretofore.
Valley City Times-Record, 8/7/1913
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CHICAGOAN BROODS OVER ARTICLE IN NORTH DAKOTA MAGAZINE AND TAKES HER OWN LIFE IN BATHTUB
Mrs. Mary DeBrito Objected To Local Man's Views on Mob Violence
WRITES TO STATE OFFICIALS
Addresses Letter to State Officials Care of Governor Frazier on Subject
(By the Associated Press.)
Chicago, August 16. Authorities today ascribed the suicide last night of Mrs. Mary DeBrito to a letter alleged to have been received by her from a magazine editor. Miss DeBrito, advertising specialist and a beauty who had taken several prizes, was found immersed in a bath tub at her rooming house with the tube from an open gas jet in her mouth, according to Mr. and Mrs. Edward Weiler, with who she roomed. Mrs. DeBrito told them of reading an article in a magazine published in North Dakota supporting the practice of tar and feathering for certain groups. She is said to have taken exception to the article and to have written to Governor Frazier of North Dakota condemning it. This letter, it is said, was sent also to the magazine editor who replied with a letter denouncing her. She attributed the visit of a man to her home a few days ago to the letter she had written and asserted he had threatened her with injury, according to Mr. and Mrs. Weiler who assert that her fright increased until she decided to kill herself.
The article referred to appeared in Jim Jam Jems magazine.
Bismarck Tribune, 8/16/1921
EDITOR'S THREAT BRINGS INQUIRY IN DEATH OF BEAUTY
Prize Winner, Who Died by Gas, Held Insane.
Mrs. Mary De Brito, once Chicago's "most beautiful Irish girl," who was found dying from gas in a bathtub in her home, committed suicide, according to a coroner's jury yesterday "while mentally deranged by failing health and despondency." A further investigation of the affair is to be made by police authorities.
S. J. Forhan and Mrs. Mary Forhan, 4622 North Ashland Avenue, her parents, testified at the inquest that their daughter was "moody and prone to act on the spur of the moment." It had been brought out previously that she had been brooding over a letter of criticism received from the managing editor of "Jim Jam Jems," a North Dakota publication. It is this incident which is to be investigated.
Stirred by Mob Attack
According to the girl's parents, she purchased a copy of the magazine while en route to Chicago from St. Paul recently. An article in the magazine entitled, "The Plumed Knight" and dealing with the recent tarring and feathering of a Beaumont, Tex., physician aroused her ire. The man in question, Dr. J. S. Paul, was kidnapped from his office in broad daylight, following charges he had performed illegal operations. The men who tarred and feathered him have been said to have been members of the Ku Klux Klan. The article in question goes on to say:
"Jim Jam Jems have waged war against abortioners, 'advertising doctors', medical tyranny, and all their attendant atrocities, and we'll never quit until they quit! Every abortioner is a murderer, a cold blooded, premeditated, deliberate murderer for dirty drachmas. And if the Ku Klux Klan—or any other Klan—will clean 'em up and pull 'em from their buzzard's roosts, we'll say Amen!"
Protest to Governor.
Immediately after reading the article, Mrs. De Brito wrote a letter to Gov. Frazier of North Dakota, denouncing the editor of the magazine.
"I refer to the paragraph {illeg} deliberately encouraging private citizens, or, rather, irresponsible individuals, to take up the law in their own hands by gloating over a most disgraceful and regrettable incident, the tarring and feathering of a man in the United States, a white doctor in Beaumont, Tex.," she wrote.
Continuing the letter read: "I understood or was laboring under the naiive impression that we had laws in this country applying to such cases, and that it was not necessary for us to decide what should or should not be done. When we reach the state where cowardly, contemptible, riotous mobs can, with impunity, render their own decisions and persecutions we have reached a critical state, indeed, for our country's welfare."
Letter Sent to Editor.
Nelson A. Mason, the governor's secretary, answered the letter, saying that he believed the girl was laboring under the misapprehensions regarding the article and that he did not believe the editor of the magazine intended to convey the idea that he was in favor of mob violence. Mr. Mason then sent the girl's letter and a copy of his reply to the editor of Jim Jam Jems.
Wallace Campbell, managing editor of the magazine, then wrote Mrs. De Brito the following letter:
"Madame: Your letter to Gov. Frazier and copy of the reply thereto lie before us. Looks to us as if you had inserted your snooping nose in the crack of the wrong door and got it squeezed a bit. Would recommend you to peruse Uncle Sam's constitution and particularly the clause relating to the freedom of the press. It might tend to illumine the cimmerian darkness of your mentality on the subject.
Start Reform at Home.
"This magazine is on its tenth year of unparalleled success. It numbers over 200,000 monthly readers, declines subscriptions and advertisements which other magazines beseech and does more real good than you or your like will do from now to the crack of doom. Why do you so object to an abortioner and advertising doctor, whose doings the law proves powerless to reach, receiving his just desert {sp} at the hands of an outraged community?
"Have you any special reasons for favoring such gentry? What do you pay judges and juries in your city? Is it to suppress race riots, which they haven't done? Is it to punish or to free just twenty-seven red handed murderers, which they have done? Is it to be powerless to arrest your governor under indictment for a confidence game? Is it to nurture and to fondle the most notorious gangs of criminals and cut throats in the world, who thrive and fatten in Chicago?"
Solves Her Problem.
"If you are undergoing a reform spasm your own city and state afford you boundless opportunities and speaking of reformers we never yet saw one who could endure the spotlight. And the very few misguided hands who have grabbed at Jim Jam Jems found they had grabbed live wire, which burned to the bone, ere they would drop it. We didn't start your intrusion into our affair, but we'll guarantee to finish it good and plenty.
JIM JAM JEMS
Per Wallace Campbell."
Shortly after the receipt of the letter, according to the girl's parents, a badly dressed and domineering man called at the home and asked for Mrs. De Britto. When told she was at work he asked the address. It was given to him.
That night Mrs. De Brito came home, her mother says, "a nervous wreck." "O, they'll print such awful things—what shall I do?" she cried.
And Monday night she solved her problem.
Chicago Tribune, 8/17/1921
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SAVED BY A DOG
CHILD FALLS INTO WELL, AND HIS DOG BRINGS RESCUER IN TIME.
Sheldon, N.D., Aug 19— Dail Doty, the 3-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Doty, had quite a thrilling experience. In the lot north of the house there is a well used for watering the stock. For some reason one of the planks of the cover had been removed and a thin board substitute therefor. The child evidently stepped upon the thin board which broke and precipitated him into the well, which was twelve feet deep and contained about two feet of water. One of the older Doty boys happened to be at the barn when the dog ran up to him and began acting in a peculiar manner, then ran to the well where he continued his peculiar actions. The boy ran to the well and looking down saw his little brother at the bottom clinging to the iron piping. He quickly climbed down and placed the little fellow in a place of temporary safety. He then ran back to the barn where he secured a rope, and returning to the well, hauled his little brother out, who was none the worse for his experience.
Bismarck Tribune, 8/30/1908
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An automobile driven by Alderman Bob McGee and a tractor pulling a
separator driven by somebody unknown to us, disputed the right of way at the intersection of Fifth avenue and Fourth street this morning. The tractor was coming east and Bob was turning to go south but both couldn't pass on the single track so they locked wheels. Very little damage was done to either party.
Valley City Times-Record, 8/7/1919
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N.D. MAN MEETS AN AWFUL DEATH
PETER BAKKE OF GRAND FORKS COUNTY VICTIM OF TRAGIC END AT WEDDING CELEBRATION.
Grand Forks, N.D., July 10.—The report has just reached Grand Forks of a terrible accident which occurred last Thursday in the extreme southwestern part of the county, on the Slinden farm.
A large company of friends and neighbors had gathered to celebrate the wedding of Martin H. Slinden and Miss Ragnhild Syverson, and for the occasion Peter Bakke, a young man 35 years of age, son of Ellef Bakke, had devised a cannon from a piece of a boiler flue. He had successfully fired it off once, and tried to repeat the operation, but it "hung fire," and thinking that it was not going to explode, he approached and bent directly over the improvised cannon, and at the same instant, without the slightest warning, the terrible explosion occurred. The cannon was blown to fragments, and the full charge struck the young man in the breast, inflicting a terrible wound, and lifting him bodily into the air. As he struck the ground he made a motion toward his heart with his right hand, then threw both arms outward, and was no more. Death was instantaneous. There were a great many who witnessed the terrible accident, and the sudden advent of death in the midst of rejoicing, filled all with sorrow and sadness, and cast a shroud of gloom over the happy wedding festivities. Mr. Bakke was the eldest of three sons and the mainstay and support of his parents, who were heart-broken over his untimely end. The deceased was widely known and esteemed, and a host of friends extend sympathy to the stricken parents and relatives in their great bereavement.
Williston Graphic, 7/15/1909
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