The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1910-07-07
NO LIGHT PIERCES
DARK MYSTERY OF
NEBRASKA MURDER
As Body Is Laid in Grave
Neighbors Take Solemn
Vow to Revenge.

Wayne, Neb., July 5.-Slowly and
with mournful read a funeral cortege
today wound away from the isolated
farm home of William Flege, six miles
northeast Of Wayne, into the beautiful
German Lutheran cemetery, q mile
away, and a few minutes later Miss
Louise Flege, aged 33, wantonly and
mysteriously murdered Thursday night,
had been consigned to earth. The serv-
ices were largely attended, and before
the last clod had been tumbled into the
open grave the muttered threats Of the
German neighbors Of the slain woman
had increased to such volume tina in
the event of the arrest Of a casual sus-
pect the authorities fear that excited
and infiamed minds may successfully
agitate violence.
Deep, sable and impenetrable is the
gloom Of mystery that darkens every
effort to- throw light on the brutal.
abandoned crime. Theories-nothing
days work by county officials and w.
G. Davenport, a private detective, of
Sioux City. OF these all but five have
generally been discarded. Those upon
which hope Is based is the woman the
Dry; the immediate family theory; the
hired man theory; the tramp theory
and the suicide theory.
noWdTO OF Vo,oOUs
So earnest are the three brothers and
the sister OF the slain for the
truth to be known about the killing
that they will today offer a reward Of
$4,000 for the capture Of the murderer.
1t Is now certain that robbery was not
the motive for the crime, for 1t has
been established despite the persistent
assertion of the hired man that no
money Is missing. If a criminal as
cn,,lf mn fhA ~,A<tx,a rvhtl. -1a1a ~
lustful f1end commit the awfu lact,
none was accomplished, though haste
could not have deferred the guilty
wretch.
Why was it done? What was the
motive? What insane desire or fear
prompted the deed? These are the
questions that cannot now be answered,
and until they an, tangible work can
not commence.
The chronological steps in the crime
are meager at the best.
At a few minutes after noon Thurs
day afternoon, William Flege, for whom
the dead woman kept house; William
E"ichtencamp, the hired man, a youth of
IS, and the murdered woman sat down
to dinner. During the meal Miss Flege
put some cobS in the kitchen stove and
looked at her bread, which was baking.
Before the meal was finished she took
the bread from the oven and placed
it on the table to cool.
Brother Goes Away.
At 12:40 William Flege drove away
from the farm house in his new auto
mobile and went to the home of his
brother Fred, a mile away, when a few
minutes later the brothers went to
Dixon.
left the farm with a team for the field.
He saw the woman, he says, near the
windmill as he drove away.
Some time in the afternoon the wom-
an was one to death with two bullets,
one entering the back of the head at
the base of the skull, penetrating the
brain and coming out of the left cheek
an inch below the eye, the other enter
ing the right breast an inch below the
nipple, going downward under the skin
until it struck the fifth rib, splintering
t"'1 bone and going backward and
y the spine.
At G.iJ ~ lock Eichtencamp returned
fvor! the I'D, threw the lines over the
horses heaGs, went to the windmill for
a drink Of water. His attention was
attracted toward the gate by several
full blood Scotch collie, stood over
some object inside the gate barking
and wildly agitated. Approaching
nearer Eichtencamp found h body
stiff in death. He saw a wound or the
face which he says he thought was a
scratch. Then he went into the house
and called up Fred Flege w the
phone, telling him he had better come
over to the house as there was some
thing the matter with Louise, saying
nothing of her death.
Sunbonnet on Fire.
BY GAO o'clock Fred had arrived ant
"'1iam, who was at the home of
" Hendricks, some distance away,
ID soon after after. The body was
d into tho hou. e and the authori-
notified.
Then found the body lay just inside
the gate, face upward with limbs dis
tended at full length. The head was
neal a little tree and the s%unbonnet
she had worn lay a few feet away.
So close was the weapon that ended
her life that the tail Of the %sunbonnet
was set on fire, n nearly half con-
sumed when found. A little patch of
grass where 1t lay was also burned
and the wonder is that the entire prop
size of an orange was also burned in
the front of the woman's dress where
the second fatal bullet entered. It Is
believed by the brothers that Louise
had been working in the garden. across
the ~barnyard and was returning to the
house When the bullets tnat q ner
life were fired. A little hoed patch In
the garden shows that she did some
work there that day.
Heard Shots Fired.
The one thing that seems to furnish
the only probate clew as to when the
murder took place is the statement of
a hired hand on the farm of Christ
Sohren, some distance away, who says
between 3 and $3.50 o'clock he heard one
shot fired, but he thought it was some-
one shooting at birds. But as there
were two shots fired and presumably
in quick succession, 1t Is not thought
possible he would have heard n with
out hearing the other.
First among the clews that presented
themselves after a preliminary exam
nation Of the scene was the one from
the story that a tramp had been driven
from the farm the morning before the
murder. The mendicant was one Of
the class WHO beg by exhibiting an APP
parent wound, made with acid and
showing a history Of his misfortunes.
He appeared on the farm early
Wednesday morning and being refused
money by william Flege, ~retreated.
cursing and threatening. The trail OF
the tramp was found without trouble,
81 L. -,ato1 a., yNTaxynn xnstnr-