GIRL TELLS OF ATTACK BY BOY SHE MURDERED
Stanley N.D., Dec 15(UP)—A mother and father struck dumb by the disaster that has come upon their daughter, a lover who remains true and a big-eyed girl who believes that shooting is justified by certain conditions are the main characters in the sad drama in the Mountrail county court house.
Sheriff Stray returned from Sanish 20 miles south of here this afternoon, bringing with him Miss Alice Holtz, 20, who yesterday shot Willie Nafus through the heart with a .38 calibre revolver, taking a life that has on previous occasions been linked up with an unsavory affair with a young girl. The shooting took place in a pool hall in Sanish when Miss Holtz followed Nafus into a pool room, called him to her and shot him through the heart, killing him almost instantly.
A coroner's jury found that Nafus had been murdered and asked that Alice be arrested. In company with her parents, Alice was brought here yesterday afternoon by Sheriff Stray and State Attorney C. N. Cottingham said that a charge of first degree murder will be lodged against her. The preliminary hearing will be held before Justice George Wilson.
"I am sorry for what I did," Miss Holtz told authorities. She believes that she did service to womankind and is willing to take the consequences. Apparently calm, she awaits the outcome. Alice's father, with tears streaming down his face and with a voice that wavered, looked the reporter squarely in the eye this afternoon and said:
"Alice is a good girl. She went down to Sanish to work in a restaurant. She has been going with a young man from Sanish for some time. He is all right. I believe they were to be married. This Willie Nafus kept hanging around the restaurant. You know his reputation. Alice knew it too. He tried to get Alice to go out with him. She never would. Last Saturday night he followed Alice when she left the restaurant and overtook her near the school house. He got Alice into the school house. A struggle followed and Alice fainted. For two days and nights Alice cried. The barber shop is in the same building as the restaurant. Alice knew there was a coat that belonged to one of the barbers hanging on the wall. She also knew that there was a revolver in the coat pocket.
"Monday she reached into the pocket and got the revolver and followed Nafus down the street. She followed him into the pool hall and shot him. Then she fainted.
"Nafus had told many in Sanish how he got the best of my daughter. Alice is a good girl and we are going to stick to her.
About a year ago Nafus was held here on a bastardy charge from which he was dismissed when another young man testified in court that he had been connected with the same case.
Moorhead Daily News, 12-15-1926
