The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-04
SIX SHOTS At A FAT MAN
YET PAWNBRoKER ROGERS HIT
LEWIS DUDBRIDGE ONLY ONCE.
A Lively Scrap in a Levee SaIOon-The
Wounded Man Had Given HoS-
ers a Black Eye.

Jack Rogers a well-known pawn
broker last night shot Lewis B. Dudbridge,
known as .Dud." in the calf of the left
leg. either as the result of a saloon quarrel
or because of a drunken spree in which
Rogers was indulging The shooting oc-
Cured in Herman Bacher's saloon at %
(old) North Illinois street at about lO:l5
o'clock There were several witnesses to
the ARRAY. but the police were unable to
find any except Bacher. his bartender and
the two principals. Bacher and the bar
tender claim that Rogers came into the
saloon drunk and that he became so bois-
ferrous that he was elected after hard
struggle; that Rogers was gone about ten
minutes and returned with a pistol in his
hand. 1t seems that Dudbrdge had had
some words with Rogers, and when Rogers
returned, according to Bacher, he walked
up to where Dudbridge was sitting, pointed
the pistol at him and said:
Now you -- am going to kill you -
With that he fired six shots. He was
then disarmed after the pistol was empty,
and returned to his room, back of his
store, ia new North Illinois street, where
he was subsequently arrested.
Rogers refused to discuss the case at all.
He was lying down in his bunk at the
county JAIL and was in a bad humor when
asked what caused the trouble. The effects
of drink were plainly visible in his talk and
behavior.
Il have nothing to say at all You know
me-" he said. My reputation against that
fellows, and you know who will win out.
L just say this much, that this the
cause of my shooting him"
Rogers exhibited swollen eye, which
was just beginning to turn black THAT 5
what caused it, he repeated. He hit me
there and L shot him.
Rogers was asked if he deliberately went
home and got his revolver to return and
shoot a man that had struck him a blow
with his fist. you've gone far enough"
ne SAID quickly. II have already talked TOO
much. And with that he closed up and
instructed Jailer Long that ii any other
newspaper men called to tell them he was
not nome.
1t was at first thought that Dudbridge
had been seriously injured. During the eX-
element Occasloned by the shooting he
slipped quietly out the back way Oh the
saloon ana was found a few minutes after
ward by the police in the engine room of
the Hotel English. He said ne had been
shot in the hip and in the calf of the leg.
He was taken 10 his boarding house, No. ZO1
North Pennsylvania street. IN the city am
bulance, but al 1870 o clock this morning he
had not yet received medical attention, al
though half dozen physicians were sent
for. However, it aScertained that he
had been shot but once, and that in the
calf of the left leg. The bullet probably
graZed the bone, and the shock, beng 1elt
heenly in the thigh made him think he had
received two bullets instead of one.
Dudbridge declares that there no
quarrel and no prOVocauOn for the shoot
ing. He says further that he does not be-
ieVe the shots were fired at him, and denies
that Rogers approached him, calling him a
name and saying he intended killing him.
He says Rogers was elected from the saloon
and that he thought no more of the oc-
PnrrRnCP until he heard the shots He
he sitting at a table talking to some
men who are employed at stone work on
the soldiers monument. Suddenly he heard
the firing OF the shots and turned about in
his chair in time to Rogers firing his
pistol at random. At the same time he feit
a bullet strike him and he got up and left
the place.
Dudbridge's statement is corroborated by
circumstances. He is man five feet five
inches high and weighs 81 pounds. He is
just about as wide as he is high and would
be an easy mark for pistol at the short
range at which Rogers is said to have fired
at MN. Any markSman could have done
better than to strike him in the lower leg.
Another reason to Believe that Rogers was
firing at random is the fact that one bullet
smashed the plate-glass mirror behind the
bar and another struck the bar near the
foot rail-
The Directory gives Dudbridge's occupa-
ton as clerk. He said, when arrested
not long ago, that he was a travelling sales
man, and the people with whom he boards
says he does nothing on account of being
SO fat, While the police declare he is gam
bier. He was arrested last fall on the
charge OF being common gambler al
time when superintendent Colbert attempt
ed to carry out Mayor Taggarts bluff at
driving the gamblers out of the city. The
charge against him was dismissed in Police
Court. Dudbridge is a familiar figure about
the 'leVee.' lie can be seen at all hours
of the day and night associatins with men
who are known to be gamblers.
Rogers is a pawnbrOker, who has been in
business here for many years, having been
located at his present place of business
for over ten years. He is fond of cards
himself, and has been known before to get
drunk. Then he is quarrelsome. He is
usually quiet and peaceable man.