Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1910-09-16
TWO MURDER TRIALS
"BOX CAR SHOOTERS GUILTY
IN FIRST DEGREE
STRAJK0WSN sMANSLAUGHTER
Criminal Calendar Occupies Seven
ays.-Special Venire of Jur-
ors.-Four Cases Nolled

Four days of Circuit Court were oc-
cupied in the trial of Mike Strajkowski,
charged with the murder of Alfred
Pjerrou of Port Arthur on the night of
May IL. A special venire of twenty
jurors was drawn Friday for this case.
The following was the jury that tried
the case: w. P. Apker, Frank S. Alden,
G. w. Calkins, M. Y Cliff, Joe Crabb,
John Daily, Tom Foster, L. Marcott,
M. Piper, c. H. Sanders, A. o. St.
Clair and James Turner. The jury
was drawn Saturday and was in charge
of the baliff over Sunday and for four
nights
The evidence presented by the state
was practically the same as that given
at the preliminary hearing. Mrs. Stra-
jkowski had shut up some stray cows
belonging to Pjerrou, which had tres
passed upon her garden during the ab-
sence of her husband who was work
ing at the Thornapple dam. Mike went
to Conrath's store to pay bill and get
some groceries in the evening and told
that the cows had been shut up. Pier
rou came into the store and there was
some trouble between them there.
They went together to the Strajkow-
ski farm west of Port Arthur, followed
by three neighbor boys, Clinton Can
field, Orvllleand Perry Dicus, aged a.
bout Ia. There Mrs. Strajkowski re-
fused to let the cows go until damages
were paid AS to just what followed
was what the jury had to decide, but
Pjerrou was shot dead, the fatal bullet
entering the back of the neck. The de-
fence claimed the woman did the shoot
ing when her husband was being beat
en- by Pjerrou. The boys were at some
distance away and could not see any
thing of the conflict except the flash of
two shots fired. Frank Petokowski,
brother of the woman, was in the house
at the time, and at the coroner's in
quest testified that his sister did the
shooting, but at the trial testified that
Mike did it.
The defense was ably conducted by
Messrs. Thomas & Carow.
The jury found verdict of man
slaughter in the third degree, the min
imum sentence for which is two years
in the penitentiary. The verdict was
renderded Wednesday morning, after
the jury had been out all night.
The special venire was excused for
the term as soon as the next jury was
drawn.
Guilty of murder in the first degree
was the verdict returned by the jury
last evening in Rusk county's second
murder trial The defendants were
Frank Skobitzka and Peter Boitch, two
Finlanders, who boarded freight car
loaded with posts at Rhinelander on
on the afternoon of April End. That
night two aged Germans giving their
names as Joe Ernst and Andrew Wen
ig were taken from the car at Bruce
with several bullets in their bodies.
The former died couple of weeks af
ter at the hospital in this city, after
having identified his assailants. The
latter appeared against them at the
trial.
The story told by the Finlanders,
who were captured at Weyerhauser by
Undersheriff Dodson the next day, was
that they shot in self-defence, and that
was the plea made by their attorney,
Chas. Kirwan, sswho was appointed by
the court to defend them. But the evi-
dence of the doctors corroborated the
story of the Germans that they were
living down asleep when their travelling
companions opened fire. The jury was
out only four hours.
Robbery is supposed to have been
the motive for the crime, but the train
happened to stop at the Beldenville
spur lust at that time and the Finland
ers took fright and jumped out.
The defense in the case against Tom
Baker, charged with permitting gam
bling and found not guilty by jury
last week, was that Mrs. Baker owned
and controlled the premises of the
Baker hotel at the time two years ago.
1t was admitted that gambling with
cards took place in the rooms off the
bar-room in the basement and that the
defendant participated.
The state produced evidence in the
case against E. D. Corriere that liquor
called .smalt" was sold at his place in
the town of Grant, but no evidence
was introduced to show what "malt''
is. Hence the verdict of not guilty.
Mary Cholwinski and her son Charles,
charged with resisting an officer, and
Mary Klawiter, charged with using OBJ
scene language, were released and the