FARMHOUSE DRAMA

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 594, 27 July 1933, Page 2

FARMHOUSE DRAMA

CRAZED FARMHAND FOBCES GIRL TO SHOOT HIM. " Emerging from a veritable nightmare of horror, the pxetty 17-year-old daughter of an Illinois farmer has staggered the Middle-*W;est of Americ'a by the story of an ordeal which' few girls have suffered. Her home invaded1 hy a drink-crazed farm-hand who shot down her father in cold hlood, she was forced by the murderer to aet as his executioner. Holding that she killed the intruder in self-defence, a coroner's jury absolved the girl from all "blame. The peaceful farm settlement of Elgin, Illinois, has been shocked as never before, says a correspiorident of the News of the World, by the story of how Ollie Day, a 60-year-old lovecrazed farm-hand, shot and killed J ohn Sch'mdtz, a prosperous farfmer and ^r'esidefit of the towfiship''s Board of Education, for love of Schmitz's beautiful 17-year-old daughter Loretta, and then forced the terrified gix*l to shoot him. Details. of the drama were unfolded

hefpr'e the Kane county coroner. It was sho"svn that heard t^'at Lo-' retta Scfiihifz ha^ : atten(ded 4 dance witlf .the ^otrthfuT' sbix of "a nei^hbotiririg fabmer. Day- then went to" fowii and drank steadily of local "red-eye," a poteht bootleg Jiquor. Returning to the: Schmitz farm, Day lay ift wait in froht of the house armed with a double-barrelled shotgun loaded with buckshot. "I'll kill you,"^ 'he yelled, Lofefta dntefe'd tlie" : house. Her father, .helieving that Day was. just on a drinking bout, calmed the girl and then cautioned the family to lock their doors. Mr. Schmitz was undressing beside the bed in which his sick wife lay when the venerable but amorpus farm-hand smashed into the room, fired' hoth barrels, and shouted,- "That is What you get if you stop me." lOne charge struck Mr. Schmitz in the leg, but despite his wouftds he closed with Day in aft effort to protect his wife. Day managed to place the | muzzle of the gun against the farmer's neck and pulled the trigger. Mr. 'Schmitz fell dead. ' After beating Mrs. Schmitz black S •aftd blue, Bay waved his gun wildly,shouting "I'm going to kill you all." He rushed to Loretta's bedroom aftd : charged thxough the fiimsy door, leaving it in splinters. Then he turned the gun oii the terrified girl, and pulled the trigger twice, but the gun stuck and did not go off. Loretta pleaded with him to spare her life, but he deliberately reloaded the wea'pon. "I'll do anything you ask," she cried. , Apparently Day had? a sudden chanige of heart and he startled the girl by saying. "I guess you had better kill me, Loretta. Yoft take this gun and shoot me before someone else does." Threatening to murder the entire family unless she obeyed, he thrust the reloaded gurt i nto her hands. "He stood up against the wall," the girl told the jury, "aftd I tried to shoot him, but again the gun would not work. He came over to me, took the gun, aftd adjusted the trigger. Then, standing against the wall once more, he said, 'Now finish me and then kill yourself." In' a frenzy of fear Loretta pulled the trigger, killing Day instantly, and fell in a dead faint beside him. _ _ Aroused hy the noise of shooting, a posse of neighbours broke in and discovered the grim scene. The jury deeided that the girl killed Day in self-defenee and completely exonerated her.