The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1897-07-16
KANSAS CITY MURDER
A PROMINENT PHYSICIAN SHOT
DEAD ON THE STREET.
ne Whole Community Much stirred Up
Over the Tragedy-Friends of the
Dead Physician Refuse to Credit
the flimsy story OF Mrs.
Schleige1.
The killing of DIR. Berger.

mas caused as much discussion and as
universal an expression Of either JUS
tification or condemnation as the kill
ing yesterday OF DIR. l.. A. Berger,
secretary and former dean of the Uni
versity medical college, by John
Schlegel. the grocer and butcher OF
321 East Eighteenth street. People
stand ON the street corners and con-
done or condemn Schlegers deed
Families all over town talked about it
last night and this morning. Lawyers.
doctors, business men, laborers, all
are interested, and perhaps the taking
of sides on similar event was never
so general
Schlegel declares that he shot Berger
because the latter outraged Mrs.
Schlegel when she was in the doctors
Office for professional treatment. He
prepared to kill his family Physician
with care and deliberation; h, laid in
wait for his victim, and when h., found
him he promptly put him out of exist
ence. 1t was not, evidently, the act
of either an insane person or Of one
suddenly excited to anger by great
provocation. 1t was the deliberate
and long-planned avenging OF what he
felt was the greatest wrong one man
can do another. And, consequently,
there are thousands to-day in Kansas
City who, believing the story of DIR.
Berger's assault on Mrs. Schlegel, de-
clare that her husband was right in
killing her assailant.
On the contrary. there are perhaps
just as many who declare that the
murder was simply the frenzied aot of
a man thirsting for vengeance for
wrongs wholly imaginary that
Schlegel was insanelv jealous; that he
suspected things which he could not
prove; that he killed the man who he
fancied had wroaged him without the
slightest foundation for his actions.
DR.. Berger's friends stand by him.
His fellow physicians unite in decry-
ing the stories of his alleged misdeeds.
They resent the insinuation that one
who held high place in his profession
would violate its principles in that
way. DIR. Berger's friends, outside of
his profession, are equally firm in
their denials of the accusations
against him. They point to his sue
cess as a doctor; they speak OF his
own happy family relations; his chill
dren, one of whom was grad
uated in the last High school class
with honor, and all of whom are favor
ties among their associates Why.
they ask, should man of his stand
ing and associations violate the home
of poor German grocer by assaulting
his wife in his Office, where she had
come for professional treatment? Mrs.
Schlegel, they say, is not a particu-
larly attractive woman, for whom
man would risk everything. The al
legged assault took place in November
why should a man, after eight
months had passed, suddenly feel his
outraged honor SO keenly that he must
needs shoot his enemy Oh sight?
1t is difficult to choose between
these two points of view. 1t is known
that DR.. Berger's reputation was not
such as to make the assault on Mrs
Schlegel utterly improbable. He had
not been entirely free from whispered
insinuations. While Dr. Berger was
widely known as physician, he never
reached the front rank of his profeS-
sion, and there are those who say that
his conduct with women was to blame
for this. Others doubt the story of
the outrage. because OF the lapse OF
time between the date set as the time
of its commission and the avenging of
it. They hold that while n man is
justified in avenging such an outrage
by death. he is not warranted in wait
ing months or even weeks, brooding
over it, and then shooting the man
who commits it in the back.
The coroners jury impaned to in
qure into the death of Or. L. A. Ber-
ger returned a verdict at noon to-day
stating that the evidence showed that
DIR. Berger had been feloniously shot
in the back twice BY John Schlegel,
and it recommended that Schlegel be
hold fo,. triol