The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-07-11
Coroner Held Inquest
Death of Leo Probed
Continued from Page One.


pact of the blow that they were
driven under the skin of the right
leg.
No Break of Skin.
Yet there was not break in the
skin ON his chest, and only few
minor looking bruises. The right
side of the face was bruised
and SCARED, and the nose was
scraped slightly, but the blow
on the head was not suffi
cient to cause more than uncon
seriousness for a few moments. The
skull was not fractured and the
neck was not broken, and DIR. G.. A.
Dahl, the deputy coroner, formed the
opinion yesterday afternoon that Mr.
Leo had died of fright or heart fail
ure Indeed, there was nothing to
indicate otherwise until the post
norton held this morning. Mr.. Leo
was, a very muscular man, and the
muscles of his chest had drawn the
broken ribs back in place so that
tie fractures could not be discov-
cred until the postmortem was held
by Drs.. G.. 4. Dahl, A. F. Schfnitt
and J. P, Rosenwald.
Mr.. Leo was working at a stone
placed upon benches, when the huge
derrick was swung round so that a
stone weighing nearly three tons,
might be picked up and transported
to another part of the quarry.
Stone Lifted in the Air.
The stone was lifted about fifteen
feet in the air and then the boom
slowly swung round until the sus-
pended weight was directly above
where Mr.. Leo was working 1t is
a rule of the quarry that whenever
a stone is being lifted above a work
man, the engineer must blow the
whistle, and this is what the engi-
OF doing when the accident occurred.
I'm operating the hosting apparatus,
the engineer has to handle two
levers, which when both are pushed
down as far as they will go, are
nearly as far apart as the arms can
reach.
Cables Are frightened.
BY holding these levers down, the
cables holding the rock suspended
in the air are frightened upon two
drums around which the cables are
wound, and the rock is held station
airy. While in this position, with
his arms stretched far apart, and
his left forearm resting heavily upon
one of the levers, the swinger boy,
John Affolter, who operates the ap-
paratus which swings the boom,
swung the rock above Mr.. Leo's
head, and as the engineer noticed
its position, he reached for the whis-
tic cord, with the hand that was
holding the left hand lever down.
His forearm was wet with sweat,
and as his fingers touched the whis-
tie cord, the lever slipped out from
under his hand, releasing the lever,
and letting the rock fall directly
over the stone cutter.
Cried Out in Alarm.
The engineer cried out in alarm,
hut was too late, and then he tried
to regain control of the rapidly de-
Scending stone, but was too late.
An Inquest Held.
The body was taken to Land
kamers undertaking parlors where
Dir. Dahl held an inquest this morn
ing. Fred Alberg, derrick man,
Charles Johnson, another stone cut.
ter, Ben Huffman, the engineer and
the swinger boy, John Affolter, who
saw the accident, were summoned as
witnesses and related the story of
the accident. John Korsel, boss of
the sstonecutters and Charles Olson,
foreman of the quarries were also
summoned.
The following gentlemen made up
the coroner's jury3 H. P. Jensen, T.
NJ Evans, D. Wigley, H. B. Perrin,
L. p, Rutan and William Pearson.
The verdict of the coroner's jury
was that Carl Leo had been killed
on July S, 1913, by being crushed by
q stone falling on him in the quarry
of James Mcclure, and that the
cause of the stone falling on him
was the slipping of the boom of the
derrick which was loading the
stone.
Several of the employees say that
the break of the hosting apparatus
has not been working we'll lately,
and that a few days ago "a heavy
stone slipped on the boom. The en-.
gineer is supposed to control the
stone with the brake lever which is
under his foot, but as this was not
strong enough to hold the rock sta
tionary, he had to keep the hosting
levers working to hold it up.
Mr.. Huffman is not licensed
engineer, but in order to operate
the hosting mechanism he would
not necessarily have to have one
according to County Attorney j. w
Schmitt. The hauling. of sthe en-
CINE was not responsible for the ac
cident. 1t was the control of the
machinery which the engine was
operating.
Was Substitute Engineer.
Ben Huffman is not the regular
engineer, but was substituting for
j. H. Williams who has not been
working since his wife's serious ill,
ness a few days ago. Her funeral
was held yesterday.
Her husbands death came as a