The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-07-12
DEBAUCH
ENDS IN MURDER
FATAL QUARREL BETWEEN. RESI-
DENTS OF BOHEMIAN FLATS.
Matt Michalicek Is Dead from a Blow
on the Head While Tony Novotne Is
Being Sought by the Police-The
Fugitive Was Married Only Last
Week.

While sorrowing relatives are gath
cred about the dead body Of Matthew
Michalicek at his little home, II
Wood street, on Bohemian flats, Tony
Novotne, who was married in true
Venetian style on the flooded flats last
week, is being hunted by score Of
detectives and policemen. as the dead
man s. slayer.
The affair occurred shortly after Z
clock last evening in George Shorba s
saloon at Fifteenth avenue S and Sec
ond street, where a crowd from the flats,
sixty strong, had gathered for ca
rousal.
Tony Novotne, the bridegroom of a
week, lives upstairs over the saloon,
came down to join his friends. The
moment he entered the room from the
stairway the crowd proposed to drink
to his health, and as they stepped to
the bar, Michalicek turned to Novotne
and said something that the others We're
unable to hear. Instantly the two men
grappled and rolled over and over on
eraI brawl, and the friends of the men
separated them that they might have
a new start. Cuspidors were hurled at
random thru the crowd, and in his rage
Novotne is said to have hit his antag
onist with one of these missiles. Michal-
icek went to the floor, but was up
again in a moment and into the thick
Of the fight. ...>-'.
II Police Called In. -.
In the meantime Shorba had sum-
moned the police, and when the fight
was hottest Patrolman August Void
entered The presence Of uniform,
was the signal for ceasing hostilities
and in moment the quarreling crowd
was quiet. Seeing that Michalicek
! had received the worst of the encoun-
| ter, and that his presence would insure
more trouble, Void ordered the injured
man to go home.
Nothing more was thought of the
matter until early this morning, when
Coroner ,Kistler was notified that Mi
chalicek was dead, and in his dying
agony had cursed Novotne as MS
slayer. The police were Immediately
for the suspect. Novotne has been EN-
ployed in the flour mills as a mailer
but he did not show up for work this
morning and nothing has been heart
=, of him.
/ The only motive advanced for the
J killing is that there was trouble ove1
:, the wedding last week: Some OF thu
, that they had courted the same girl ant
| that the murdered man had sworn. tt
get even with the successful sutton
1 Others say that the trouble started year
ago and revived again last night Whel
the crowd started to make. hero O.
. Novotne. =, -. =.
, The Flat Dwellers' Rendezvous.
Shorba IS saloon is the rendezvous O
a certain gang, who gather there almos
nightly and drink and settle their dis
,, 'putes. They are all small of statur
but the two men who figured In tn
bloody affair last night are the pig
mics of the flats. Since the weddin,
last week there has been continual
celebration and the principals in tn
affair are said to have been more o
less Intoxicated for a week. !
n q. sAlS tEe% detectives areaoingS every
I thing in their power to find Novotne
q they are blocked at every turn by til
silence Of the eye-witnesses to the at
fair. The police think that the man i
in hiding at the home Of some friend
for these people seldom risk bein
l caught by taking train out Of tn
" city. The settlements on Western av
enue and in Northeast Minneapolis ar
> being searched for the#fugitive, and a
: arrest is expected at anylmoment. Pr
lice superintendent Doyle is directin
: the search personally. and is scourin
= the districts with his men. :