Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1909-12-03
COUNTY BULLY ON
MURDER RAMPAGE
SHOOTS AND KILLS THREE PEG.
PIE AND PROBABLY FATAL
LY WOUNDS TWO OTHERS.
SLAYER THEN SHOOTS SELF
Surrounded by Mob, He crawls un
der Bed to Die Suicide
The Murderer Had Ex-
aggerated Ego.

Greenville, O.--Three dead because
of exaggerated ego. This. briefly,
is the story of a triple tragedy
at Gettysburg, eight miles east of
this city. The brutality of the
crimes. the pursuit of the posse, the
defense of the barricaded house and
the sudden and spectacular ending of
the drama are the incidental details.
Clyde Weaver, "a years old, was the
principal actor in the bloody tragedy.
He has been the county bully for
years. His overbearing and intoler-
able manner frequently got him into
trouble and his fights were innumer-
able. Inevitably he got into the
courts. 1t was here that physicians,
after examining him, pronounced the
man a victim of exaggerated ego, that
pathological popularity that resulted
so disastrously to Harry Thaw and
so fatally to Stanford White.
In little house not far from the
village Weaver lived with his aged
mother. Word was sent to Sheriff
Haber by neighbors that Weaver was
acting violently. Accompanied by
Deputy Farra, the sheriff drove over
to the Weaver home. The bully saw
them coming and armed himself. In
response to their knocking at the
door Weaver opened fire with his big
revolver. Farra fell, bullet through
his hips. There was another shot and
another. The door opened and Mrs.
Weaver, bleeding from wounds in her
breast, fell into the arms of Sheriff
/ inu oh
acter of the bully, Weaver had cara
ried his brutality to his own firesidel
he had killed his own mother.
In the meantime Farra. unable to
walk, had dragged himself to wood
shed. Here he lay, moaning and
| groaning. weaker each minute from
the loss of blood, and here Weaver.
who had left the house, came upon
him. With a curse he began firing at
the helpless officer. One bullet split
his chin. The other pierced his
heart. In the buggy of the man he
had just killed Weaver drove to the
home of Levi Minnich with the sheriff
in pursuit. He burst into the house.
Minnich, cowed by the mans repu-
tation and the fear of the impending
violence, stood silent. The hesitation
angered the bully. He put a bullet
into each of Mrs. Minnich's arms and
as the husband stopped over his pros
trate wife. Weaver put a bullet into
Minnich's back.
Sheriff Haber in the meantime had
summoned re-inforcements. The
posse surrounded the house. The in
fluence of Weaver was felt even in
this crowd of determined men. For
some time none approached close to
the building. Then Mrs. Minnich, hys-
terical, wounded and bleeding, opened
the back door and, swooning, fell
down the steps.
Patrolman Alsbaugh and Ernest
Bell volunteered to make a dash on
the home and either overpower Wea-
yer or shoot him down. In a sleeping
room they saw Weaver under a bed.
AS they hurried to grab him by the
feet and pull him out Weaver fired.
The bullet he sent into his own brain.
Physicians from Greenville hurried
to the Minnich home. Minnich's con-
dition is precarious. The 3S-caliber
bullet shattered the bones in Mrs.
Minnich's left arm. The arm will
have to be amputated and the woman
may die.