The Dickinson press., 1890-06-21
A MANDAN MURDER.
George Lewis, Of This Place, Mortally
Wounds VIM. Palmer.
Four Shots Fired, All Of Which Took
Effect.

George Lewis. of this place, is Il
painter working for the Northern
Pacific company, and last Sunday
evening, a: Mandan, mortally wound.
ed VIM. Palmer, another painter, by
firing four shots into his body from IL
revolver. The following account of
the sad affair is taken from the MAN.
dan Pioneer:
'::Lewis and Palmer and u Sweed
met during the afternoon and the
Sweed and Lewis quarreled. Finally
Lewis struck the Sweed over the
head. Not long after this occurred
the party went over to the paint car
and Lewis made Il boast of having
settled the section hand and seemed
rather satisfied with what he had
done. Palmer did not like it and was
free in expressing his opinion, telling
George that he ought TO be ashamed
of himself for striking Il poor in
nocent Sweed who had done nothing
and could hardly speak Il word of
English. This was holly resented,
and as both men were the worse for
liquor the quarrel quickly turned into
quarrelling begun again, and Palmer
succeeded in putting Lewis out OF the
Car through the north door and then
closed it. Lewis ran around to the
south door and again they met, and
after a few more angry words Lewis
drew Il SO calibre bulldog revolver
and shot Palmer three times, and
perhaps four, hitting his mark every
shot. He then fired one shot into the
ground and threw his siN-shooter on
the roof of the round house. Palmer
had fallen after the third or fourth
shot was fired, and when George had
disposed of his revolver he jumped
into the Car and helped his victim
to a bunk at the side of the car, say
ing: Lie down, Billy, and I'll go for
the DOCTOR
DR.. Reed was the first physician to
arrive, and after getting Palmer's
| clothes off found that II shot had
entered his left thigh, that another
had grazed the left elbow, a third had
entered the abdomen on the left side
and had either come out OH the right
side or that Il fourth shot had entered
on the right side.
Palmer seemed to be i'll great agony
and talked necessarily, going oveI
and over again the details of the
shooting. Talked about his wife and
children, and would stop in the mid
die of a sentence and exclaim: ooh. it
was a dirty trick that George played
on me, after | gave him work and
favored him more than any Of the
men l had A part of the time his
talk was perfectly connected and he
would give his account of the terrible
scene in a straight forward manner.
Several times lie repeated the same
story. He would say: You see
George and l had u little scrap. l
was lacking him up about striking
the Sweed when he pulled his gun
and shot me in the leg. said, "1Iold
on, George, or you'll hurt me-" and
then he shot me two or three times
more and that's all l know, becarse L
fell down and / was in such misery
He was perfectly confident that he
would die, and kept repeating:
I'm not afraid to die and am ready
w SO lIOW, DuO J. lNCC w OiiAilh Ch"V \
had such "a dirty, lea trick played
on me and that l have got to be put
out of the world like this
Something was said in his hearing
about taking him to Brainerd. This
seemed to distress him more than his
wounds, and lie begged not to be sent,
imploring the doctor repeatedly not
to send him. He would say: 'Please
send me home to my little children
before l die. am fatally wounded,
and if / go to Brainerd I'll never see
them again. lie repeatedly referred
to having hidden some valuable pa
pers that he wished to tell his wife
about, but refused to tell any one
else where they were. Palmer's
family, in Helena, were telegraphed
George Lewis says that lie shot in
selfdefense, as Palmer had drawn q
large knife on him, and had said: Sill
cut your heart out Several who
were witnesses of the affair, claim to
have seen the knife, and others say
thew did not